How Reid Killed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal
As overtly unsympathetic as the Republican party has been to the gay community for almost as long as one can remember, don’t blame Republicans for the fact that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) is still in place and may in fact remain in place for many years. Blame Harry Reid and the Democrats. Rather than win a victory long sought by all members of the gay community and most members of the Democratic Party by delivering a clean military spending bill with DADT repeal, Harry Reid attached a controversial immigration amendment which would give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. Mr. Reid’s reasons for attaching the bill have nothing to do with his desire to reform immigration and everything to do with his desire to get Hispanics to turn out so that he can beat a certifiable lunatic who would not have any chance of being elected to public office were he not so incompetent.
Democrats will point to John McCain’s somewhat out of touch and mildly homophobic assertion that a study be completed prior to voting on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal as the death blow to efforts to repeal DADT, but the obvious reality is that the Democrats had one Republican who desperately wanted to vote with them to get rid of the awful rule. Senator Susan Collins of Maine told reporters after she voted "no" that DADT “should be repealed… My view is our armed services should welcome the service of any qualified individual who is capable of serving our country… We should be expressing our gratitude to those individuals not trying to exclude them from service or expel them from the force.”
So why didn’t she vote for the bill? “There are many controversial issues in this bill. They deserve to have civil, fair and open debate on the Senate floor,” explained Collins. She added: “I cannot vote to proceed to this bill under a situation that is going to shut down the debate and preclude Republican amendments. That, too, is not fair”.
This is the second time Harry Reid has placed his own political needs in front of important Democratic party goals and important goals for the country. When Senator Graham had worked with Democrats for months against the wishes of his own party to create a viable energy bill, Harry Reid doomed all of these efforts by insisting publically that he would first try to deal with immigration reform, something that Graham had been promised would not happen. Graham walked away and the energy bill died. Now with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, Harry Reid turns away a clear cut chance to get a win and repeal the damn thing. Does he take it? No. Now DADT is here to stay. Good work, Harry.
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