To my amazement, Jim Webb voted for cloture today. Nonetheless, the vote to end the filibuster of the Defense Authorization Bill failed minutes ago by a vote of 43 - 56. Democratic Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln (both from Arkansas) both betrayed LGBT Americans and those who would have benefited under the DREAM Act and voted no, joining every member of the GOP in a vote for bigotry. Harry Reid - who in my view utterly mismanaged the affair - switched his vote to "NO" for procedural reasons so that he could later re-introduce the bill.*
I continue to believe that the outcome could have been different had we had some leadership from the White House. I also find myself really beginning to think that BOTH parties want to keep LGBT Americans hostage – both uses us for fundraising purposes from their respective party bases. Even more cynically, I believe the Democrats realize that if we ever win full equality under the laws, then we will not feel beholden to the Democrats who will then potentially lose a cash cow in terms of fundraising.
*
I will have further thoughts and reflections later. Needless to say, I am VERY unhappy.
1 comment:
I hope that the defense reauthorization is held up, not just DADT repeal. And note that not a single Republican supported voting on this. Disappointing as the Democrats are, the Republicans are uniformly bad and getting worse.
I think we should be pressing Obama not to appeal the court rulling against DADT.
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