Repeal of 'Don't Ask' Clears Huge Senate Hurdle

Ban on gays in the military is expected to fall today or tomorrow
Posted Dec 18, 2010 10:59 AM CST
Repeal of 'Don't Ask' Clears Huge Senate Hurdle
Protesters call for repeal in Washington in this file photo from earlier this month.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

The military's 17-year-old ban on gays in the military is all but dead. Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell cleared its crucial 60-vote procedural hurdle in the Senate today and is expected to easily pass in the final vote later today, reports AP. The vote to kill a GOP filibuster passed by a relatively comfortable margin of 63-33, making it a near certainty that President Obama will be signing repeal into law by the end of the year.

Six GOP senators joined Democrats in voting for repeal: Susan Collins, Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski, Mark Kirk, and George Voinovich. (Democrat Joe Manchin, who opposed repeal, missed the vote because of a "holiday gathering," notes Politico.) Opponent John McCain pronounced it a "very sad day," reports the Washington Post. "They will do what is asked of them," he said of service members. "But don't think there won't be a great cost." More senators apparently agreed with Harry Reid: "As Barry Goldwater said, 'You don't have to be straight to shoot straight.'" (More Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal stories.)

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