Will Today See the Death of DADT?

Like so many, I feel that I've been on an emotional roller coaster with the DADT repeal saga with moods ranging from near despair to hopeful optimism. Hopefully, the Senate will vote for repeal today and DADT and its enshrinement of religious based discrimination will be headed to the trash heap of history. Frankly, I can't fully bring myself to hope too much for success since we've seen so many games and disingenuous moves by Senate Republicans who continue to ignore the will of the majority of Americans and instead kiss the asses of the Pharisee-like Christianists. As noted before, the end of DADT will have a huge subconscious impact on communities such as Hampton Roads where the secrecy created by and bigotry supported by DADT has so often spilled over into the private sector. The Washington Post has coverage that suggests repeal will indeed happen. I hope it's accurate. Here are highlights:
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Gay rights activists, congressional aides and supportive lawmakers are anticipating a successful vote this weekend to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" law.
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But for Stacey Vasquez and David Hall, discharged by the military for violating the law, the tumultuous - and protracted - political fight regarding gays in the military is about much more than policy and procedure. "It's not just a vote. This is my life," Vasquez said Friday at a Capitol Hill news conference. "This is what I was called to do; it's what I want to do; it's what I'm inspired to do." Vasquez, a 12-year Army veteran, said former colleagues call every day asking when she can reenlist.
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Hall, a 36-year-old Air Force veteran, has been fighting to end the ban since his discharge in 2001. "It seems like it's going on forever. But you know, we are so close," he said Friday.
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A key procedural vote is scheduled for Saturday. Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are sponsoring the bill to end "don't ask, don't tell" that passed the House this week. Supporters expect a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate now that Collins and three other Republicans - Scott Brown (Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) - are expected to vote with 57 members of the Senate Democratic caucus.
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[C]onservative activists are also trying to sway wavering Republicans. There is no reason to rush passage of radical, irreversible legislation, particularly when commitments were made to do so only after full debate" of the Pentagon's recent report on how to end the ban, said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a group opposed to ending the law.
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Obviously, it's not surprising that Elaine Donnelly is hysterically opposing repeal: if DADT is repealed, her organization will no longer have a reason to exist and - oh, the horrors - Ms. Donnelly will have to get a real job or become a stay at home wife (where the Bible says she should be anyways per the Bible beaters' reading of the Bible). It's far past time that opportunistic parasites like Donnelly who want to subvert religious freedom be sent into retirement.