With the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" that passed yesterday in the House, the ball is now in the Senate's -- or more specifically, Harry Reid's -- court.
Last week the Senate fell three votes short of moving the repeal forward, but today, with Senators Blanche Lincoln (who missed last week's vote), Olympia Snowe, Lisa Murkowski and Scott Brown all on board, meeting the 60 vote threshold is no longer an issue. But doing the right thing may be.
Today Reid said:
Yesterday, The House passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell and we're going to have to deal with that in some way.
Some might say that some way is to schedule a vote. Now.
The time for excuses about time is over. As a Senate aide pointed out:
If Reid waits until New START is done before holding the vote on DADT, Senators could start going home once the treaty is resolved, dooming DADT repeal. But this scenario would be averted if Reid slips in the DADT vote before START. By contrast, if the DADT repeal debate and vote are done first, no Senator will leave Washington before START is resolved. So doing DADT repeal first doesn't imperil START.
This afternoon, Reid vowed that there would be a vote, but we've heard that song before. Saying it and scheduling it are two different things.
If the repeal doesn't happen this year, it's dead. And it won't be because of obstructionist Republicans, or too little time, or because the President didn't use his bully pulpit. It will be because Harry Reid didn't schedule the vote. So schedule the damn thing.