WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Efforts to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays lost a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate Thursday, 57-40.
Democrats needed 60 votes to begin consideration of the 2011 defense authorization bill, which included the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal proposal.
The Washington Post reported Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been involved in negotiations all week with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, Ind-Conn., to push the bill through before the end of the lame-duck session by allowing five of 10 proposed Republican amendments to be added.
"We've tried every possible way to do this," Reid, D-Nev., said before the vote.
President Obama supports repeal of the policy, which prohibits gays from openly serving in the military. A federal judge has ruled the policy unconstitutional, but Obama and Pentagon officials prefer a legislative solution that would allow for a more orderly implementation of a new policy.
"History will hold these senators accountable and so will many of their constituents," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. "There will be no place for these senators to hide. The Senate and the president must remain in session and in Washington to find another path for repeal to get done in the lame-duck".
Thursday's vote makes it more likely Obama will have to take some action, possibly by directing the Department of Justice to stop appealing the judge's order or by issuing an executive order ending expulsion of gays from the military. UPI
