Pump up the Gaga, gays and gals who like gals! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally went ahead with a a cloture vote on the defense spending bill, a procedural move effectively allowing a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to come to the floor for debate, though fortunately not gay and lesbian soldiers to burst out of Army closets as out ‘n proud members of the U.S. Military. Phew!
But, like most other bills not exclusively dedicated to making the rich even more delightfully rich and powerful, this too failed by a vote of 57-40, because our nation’s democracy is so advanced and effective that it can’t even rule on matters of basic equality like normal human beings not crazed, special needs swamp monsters.
Rumor had it that gay-loving Republicans Scott “Cosmo” Brown, Susan “Cock Tease” Collins, and John “What Happens In Vegas…” Ensign were on board and ready to support repeal.
They were thisclose, I tell ya, thisclose to getting this thing done, once and for all!
But nooooooo! Suddenly, Ms. Collins decided, eh, on second thought, she won’t vote for cloture after all because apparently the last 17 years haven’t been nearly long enough, and she obviously needs more time to straighten things out, so to speak.
And she will also not move so much as one freakin, freedom-denying inch unless a certain Mormon Majority Leader agrees to her perfectly reasonable demands for very kindly permitting debate to proceed on the defense authorization bill, so that her wonderful Grand Old colleagues can take to the floor and explain all the fabulous reasons why, when it comes to gross gay and lesbians (except when it involves Michael Steele RNC fundraisers), they don’t care about logic or equality, but centuries-old bigotry and fear. Well, that and tax cuts for the rich, of course.
“The majority leader’s allotment of time to debate those amendments was extremely short (17 years does seem a bit rash!), so I have suggested doubling the amount of time, assuring that there would be votes, and making sure that the Republicans get to pick our own amendments as opposed to the Majority Leader,” Sen. Collins said, adding, “If he does that I will do all that I can to help him proceed to the bill. But if he does not do that, then I will not.”
So there!
Collins reminded Reid that Republicans don’t want to debate anything until the tax issue is resolved. “I have urged the majority leader to postpone the vote…so that we could get the tax bill considered first — which I believe could be on the floor tomorrow — and completed by Saturday, and then move immediately to the DOD bill, but under a fair agreement.”
A fair agreement being, of course, whatever it takes to stall debating (let alone voting on) some dumb, bizarre policy compromise crafted 17 years ago, when most of the country still thought of gays as scary, rainbow unitard wearing sexually deviant demons fairying through the skies scouring for innocent heterosexual newborns to kidnap and have their wily ways with back in their Pottery Barn accented soft lofts in the ninth circle of Hell. Now gays are mostly known as those pesky, speedo-clad hard-bodies whose ridiculous demands for equal rights and the same constitutional guarantees as their superior, heterosexual counterparts are making life very difficult for those like John McCain, who rely on hatred and discrimination for their very survival!
Well the Republicans’ brilliant “Good Faith” negotiation strategy of ever-shifting demands and stall tactics worked wonders, because Susan Collins did end up voting for cloture, not because she realized the lives and livelihoods of actual soldiers is probably more important than parliamentary process and archaic Senate procedures, but because with Republican Sens. Scott Brown (MA), Richard Lugar (IN), and Lisa Murkowski (AK) suddenly voting no, the repeal bill was doomed anyway.
Because being a “moderate” Republican like Susan Collins means saying you’re in favor of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, but only once it is guaranteed that the legislation itself would never come to an actual vote because their party would drag their feet on it forever.
Or if you’re a freshly elected Democratic Senator from West Virginia like Joe Manchin, you also vote against repeal (when you’re not shooting environment-protecting cap ‘n trade bills with shotguns, that is) because in his enlightened Mountaineer state, politicians get instant respect and admiration whenever they vote against their terrible, fellow Democratic party, particularly on matters involving saving this dumb old planet or giving equal rights to them homos and their gross homo agenda.
“There is simply no evidence and no justification – legal, military or otherwise – for keeping this policy in place,” Sen. Harry Reid said. “There is no reason to keep American citizens from fighting for the country they love because of whom they love.”
Oh, Harry!
You don’t need reason when you have Republicans!
But since you insist, how ’bout…NObama 2012??
Hell, there’s forty reasons right there!