Just hours before President Obama planned to sign on Wednesday the repeal of the military’s 17-year ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, Republicans tried one last legislative maneuver to block the change.
Republicans in the Senate filed an amendment to a sweeping defense authorization bill that would have required the four military service chiefs to be part of the certification process called for in the bill that repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
That would have put Marine Corps chief General James Amos, a vocal opponent of the repeal, in line to delay or potentially prevent its implementation. The amendment was filed late Tuesday to the defense measure, which could be voted on in the Senate on Wednesday.
But Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky, said late Tuesday night that an objection from a senator had been registered to the last-minute amendment and that it would not be included as part of the defense authorization bill.
Mr. Stewart made the remarks after advocates of repeal scrambled late Tuesday night to assess the potential impact of the amendment and to prevent its inclusion in the otherwise uncontroversial military spending bill. A senior Democratic aide in the Senate said “this would be a poison pill for DADT repeal.”
And of course, nobody's owning up to this amendment and McConnell is playing dumb. It was only stopped because it was caught in time last night, but it could have gone to the floor today otherwise and it's possible there could have been the votes for it.
Pretty sneaky even for Republicans, back door bigotry. Caught red handed, even McConnell had to pull the amendment.
But remember, Republicans negotiate and operate in good faith, and we should trust them.
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