Sen. Harry Reid has called a cloture vote on repeal of the ban on gay military service. It is expected to fail. And this reading indicates that this likely means the end of repeal this session — and maybe for years. Sen. Susan Collins does it again. With friends like these, gay people don’t need enemies.

Party of No prevails again.

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UPDATE: A vote to end filibuster failed. Sen. Susan Collins, despite my earlier comment, was the only Republican to join 56 Democrats in voting to end debate. Though she did right, she knew the vote would fail and blamed it on Democrats’ handling of process. The Party of No prevailed and likely would have prevailed no matter how many amendments they’d have been allowed to introduce. One Democrat, Manchin of West Virginia, joined the Republicans, a critical swap that made Collins’ vote meaningless. Blanche Lincoln did not vote, same as a no. Passage always depended on several Republicans who’d said they favored the measure. Talk is cheap. Equality is hard won for some people.

Lincoln didn’t arrive in time to vote because of a doctor’s appointment. She said she would have voted to end the filibuster. That’s what she said shortly before she supported an earlier Republican filibuster on DADT, so who knows?

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The Human Rights Campaign, recognizing the hostility that Republicans bring to the issue in the next Congress, has called on the president to issue a stop discharge order under DADT and to stop opposing the court fight to overturn the law as unconstitutional. This is a recognition of the bleak congressional playing field. A sad day.

Collins and Joe Lieberman and Harry Reid say they will offer
a stand-alone measure on repeal for a Senate vote and think there are sufficient votes to pass it. But that presumes Republicans don’t try to amend it to death with crippling, divisive amendments and filibuster every procedural vote. Further reporting on this last-gasp effort.

Read here some more on Manchin’s trickery and how Collins’ demands more or less made this loss inevitable. Read hear a sneer at Lincoln for missing a key vote for a dentist appointment. Would successor John Boozman let a cavity stop a vote bashing gays? You know the answer to that.

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A statement from Lincoln’s office:

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