The Defense Reauthorization Bill, which included repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, just fell to yet another GOP filibuster:
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would have repealed the law banning gays from serving openly in the military.
The partisan vote was a defeat for Senate Democrats and gay rights advocates, who saw the bill as their last chance before November’s elections to overturn the law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
With the 56-43 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. It also would have authorized $726 billion in defense spending including a pay raise for troops.
Senate Democrats attached the repeal provision to the defense bill in the hopes that Republicans would hesitate to vote against legislation that included popular defense programs. But GOP legislators opposed the bill anyway, thwarting a key part of the Democrats’ legislative agenda.
As Drudge points out, one of the Democrats who voted with Republicans was Harry Reid:
What Drudge doesn’t point out is that Reid actually supported the bill. He changed his vote at the last minute as a procedural move so that he could bring the bill back up again. Even the article Drudge links to mentions that, but Matt Drudge can’t be bothered with pesky little things like facts. Instead he is too busy pushing his misinformation.