Saturday's historic Senate vote to finally repeal the hideous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy took 17 years and offered plenty of twists and turns along the way. President Barack Obama signed the law Wednesday, beginning the process of dismantling DADT so that gays and lesbians can serve openly in the armed forces. This won't happen immediately, but we're on the way to making the military more equal for citizens who want to serve.
Last weekend's vote on a standalone bill in the Senate was mostly due to Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), whose hawkish politics have not always endeared him to liberals or LGBTs. But we must acknowledge the heavy lifting he did to introduce a separate bill after the Senate failed to break a filibuster a couple weeks ago on the defense spending bill (which included DADT repeal). Given that Congress has only days left in its lame-duck session and the general slow pace of the Senate, it was quite a feat that Lieberman and his colleague, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), succeeded in bringing this bill to the floor for a vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who twice this year failed to get 60 votes to break the filibuster, also deserves credit for scheduling the vote before time ran out.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and the rest of the leadership also deserve credit for passing a standalone bill last week in that chamber. Openly gay Representative Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) kept the pressure on, and outgoing Representative Patrick Murphy (D-Pennsylvania) made it his goal to see repeal of DADT realized.
But the sticking point was in the Senate, and Lieberman showed that he can count votes. He said several times since the failed DADT repeal vote in early December that there were 60 votes to move ahead on a standalone bill, and he was right. In fact, the final Senate vote for repealing the discriminatory policy was 65-31, with eight Republicans bucking the histrionics of Senator John McCain and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
All of which brings us to another Joe – new West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. A Democrat who was elected last month, Manchin has already been sworn in because he is filling the term of Robert Byrd, the longest serving senator who died in June. But Manchin deserves a big lump of West Virginia coal in his Christmas stocking because he voted no on DADT repeal a couple weeks ago and on Saturday he was absent from the Capitol. According to news accounts in the West Virginia Gazette, Manchin missed two major votes – DADT and the DREAM Act – because he had a previously scheduled family holiday party. A Manchin spokeswoman told the paper that the senator was in the Pittsburgh area where his daughter lives.
It's not an auspicious start to Manchin's Senate career. And you can be certain that Byrd would never have missed such a crucial vote, let alone two. If an elected officeholder is responsible to their constituents, Manchin failed. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and yet he managed to vote on Saturday for DADT repeal and the DREAM Act, deciding to undergo what doctors said was "perfect" surgery on Monday in Baltimore.
By Tuesday, Manchin issued an apology to his constituents. He also said he told Senate leaders that he would have voted against both bills.
That's not surprising. He was the only Democrat to vote against it two weeks ago. At the time, he issued a press release that stated, "While I believe the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy will be repealed someday, and probably should be repealed in the near future, I do not support its repeal at this time," he said. "I truly understand that my position will anger those who believe repeal should happen now and for that I sincerely apologize. While I am very sympathetic to those who passionately support the repeal, as a senator of just three weeks, I have not had the opportunity to visit and hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia."
After that statement, DADT repeal advocates sent petitions with hundreds of signatures to his office. And then he cowardly bailed on the day of the vote to avoid taking a stand on the issue. He had already voted no, heard from people who favored repeal, yet couldn't bring himself to do the right thing, so he left town for a party.
That's not leadership, Senator Manchin. That's crass politics.
Death of a DREAM
While the Senate deserves kudos for voting to repeal DADT, there was disappointment for the DREAM Act. That bill was defeated on a 55-41 vote Saturday. It would have created a pathway to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States before they were 16. Often, these young people are the unwitting victims of their own parents, and sometimes they don't even know that they are in the country illegally. The DREAM Act, which stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, would have allowed young people to obtain citizenship if they had two years of college or served for two years in the military. It was the least controversial of several immigration reform proposals and had been passed by the House already.
It's unlikely the act will move forward next year when Republicans take over the House and increase their numbers in the Senate. A path to citizenship for young people is a great start to the enormous task of reforming immigration. The Republican base is so anti-immigrant (now that anti-gay appeals have lost their potency since several high-profile gay GOPers have stepped out of the closet in recent years) that even the moderate senators wouldn't risk backlash from voting for it.
That's a shame.