The end of the lame duck is in sight. The House late last night passed the tax bill after progressives gave up their demands to strengthen the estate tax provision — demands that nearly brought down the bill. Members are sticking around Washington now, waiting until how the government is funded the next few months [...]
I can just imagine conversations going on between senators and their spouses right about now. “Sweetie, I’m sorry, but I’m going to be stuck in Washington all of next week.” “Darling, no way. You left me alone last year with your in-laws and the kids. I’m not doing another Christmas in Florida without you.” “Sugar [...]
Two Democratic constituencies are likely to end the day disappointed: Hispanics and gays. This afternoon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will try and move to the DREAM Act, which would grant a path to citizenship to millions of illegal children who are getting college degrees or serving in the armed forces. After that he will [...]
Pew has a new poll out today showing that the nation has shifted on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, since the 1990s. Only 27 percent of Americans oppose gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, down from 45 percent in 1994. Fifty-eight percent of Americans support ending DADT. Even among Republicans, there is a narrow [...]
Yesterday in a Meet the Press debate with Michael Bennet, Ken Buck misspoke. Badly. When asked by moderator David Gregory if he thought homosexuality is a choice Buck said he believed it is and went on to compare homosexuality to alcoholism. GREGORY: Do you believe that being gay is a choice? BUCK: I do. GREGORY: [...]
It’s been five weeks since anyone’s seen anyone and the Senate this afternoon felt a lot like College coming back after a break. Maybe not a summer break, but a long one – like Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza. Senators, reporters and staff milled about chatting about their vacations, codels and campaigns. The Capitol Police, usually fastidious in their [...]
The survey the Department of Defense is giving to 400,000 service members about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is now online. Read it here. The questions in the survey ask respondents to answer 32 pages of questions that include whether they know of gays serving in the military with them, how they feel repealing DADT would [...]
About six minutes in to the speech Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, focuses on a center for Islamic studies founded at Harvard during Elena Kagan’s tenure as the Dean of Harvard Law. An excerpt: Around the same time that Dean Kagan was campaigning to exclude military recruiters, citing what she saw [...]
The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell hit a speed bump today in the Senate with Lindsey Graham, a senior member on the Armed Services Committee and a Republican the Dems had been hoping Joe Lieberman could lure, coming out against the deal. Dems will need at least one Republican* — and likely a few [...]
