Senate Votes To Block DREAM Act & Repeal of DADT

The votes are still coming in, but with Collins and Snowe voting “no”, it appears that the filibuster blocking repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars openly gay persons from serving in the military will be sustained on a party-line vote.

The unanimity of Republican opposition to lifting the ban is increasingly confusing.  No less than former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson led the charge to change the Republican position in 2007.  And the costs to the military are significant.  A disproportionate part of those discharged under DADT are linguists — the very people that the military remains in most desperate need of to fight the continuing war against al-Qaeda and its allies.

For those who want to end the continuing drain of qualified people from the military, however, there is still some hope not far off.  Republican opposition was predicated on “letting the military have their say”, asking that the decision be deferred until the completion of yet another internal Pentagon review.  Assuming that such a report will inevitably be a bureaucratic mish-mash of conflicting signals in response to the cross-cutting political pressures that the Pentagon’s military and civilian leaders face, the issue will inevitably be thrown back into the Congress, with much less let’s-wait-and-see cover for Republican moderates.

And least I hope so.

UPDATE: Senator Reid just switched his vote, a procedural device designed to allow the Majority Leader to renew his effort to invoke cloture.

UPDATE 2: Provisions in the bill that would allow military members who are the children of illegal immigrants to gain legal status (the so-called “DREAM Act”) was also apparently a reason for some Republican opposition.  For such a reason, I have nothing but contempt.  People who come to this country as illegal immigrants are, at most, guilty of a very mild crime similar to speeding.  The “they broke the law” or “they have no respect for the rules” reaction that is disturbingly common on the far right is so wildly out of proportion as to raise serious doubt if what is really going on is just plain racism.  But even if it is really about breaking the law, their children are innocent of even that.  And when those children go on to serve in the U.S. military, they surely expunge any remaining taint.  Yet, the anti-immigrant sentiment in the Republican Party apparently cannot spare any compassion even for them.