Sunday reading: Repealed

4 Winners From 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
The Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" allowing gays to serve openly in the Military is a landmark Legislation - a historic Civil Rights bill that will be remembered in the history books for generations to come. But the political implications of its passage are also very significant, for both the White House and several leading senators whose fortunes changed overnight. Here are the four big political winners in the wake of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal: MORE FROM NATIONAL JOURNAL: Stage Se...

Lame Duck SGO
What was I thinking when I wrote last week that if Republicans stuck together they could have a clean sweep of the Lame Duck session? I admit it was wishful thinking, as others did in speculating that the Republican equivalent of Silvio Berlusconi -- Michael Steele -- wouldn't run for another term as RNC Chairman. So far, there's some good and much awful, but there's so much SGO that the supposedly limping mallard must be doing wind sprints to limber up every day just to keep up with the schedul...

National Review eyes John Bolton for 2012
link from the #TCOT Report | story from Politico No, it’s not just an attention-getting stunt. John Bolton is seriously considering running for president. Bolton, the fiery, archconservative former United Nations ambassador, sees an opening in the 2012 Republican field. And his case, while far-fetched, is not altogether implausible. “As I survey the situation, I think the Republican field is wide open,” Bolton told POLITICO. “I don’t think the party’s anywhe...

Washington Week
While most Americans spent this weekend doing some last minute Christmas Shopping, the Senate spent Saturday and Sunday debating and voting on amendments to the START Treaty, the DREAM Act and the Repeal of the Defense Department's “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. When all was said and done, the Senate sent to the president the Repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” defense policy. The DREAM Act was defeated and the START treaty remains the pending b...

Cheers and Jeers: Monday
From the GREAT STATE OF Maine... Yay Just some random thoughts on Saturday's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal vote, starting with today's boring correction: on November 28, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham gave Chris Wallace a pinky shake and a promise: "I don't believe there is anywhere near the votes to Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. ... So I think in a Lame Duck setting Don't Ask, Don't Tell is not going anywhere." Nowhere, that is, except in the history books as a huge victory for gay civil...

Monday morning briefing
The U.S. Census Bureau will release state-by-state population figures tomorrow, triggering a contentious redistricting battle in the Bay State. Experts have indicated Massachusetts is likely to lose one of our 10 Congressional Seats. None of the delegation seems willing to step down, and both Western Massachusetts congressmen are taking pains to make sure everyone knows they plan to stick around. There’s another pending game of musical chairs in the State House, as the data will mean redi...

Some Republicans to support 9/11 Health Bill?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) seems confident she has found a way to get the Zadroga bill passed after it died last week. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is already on board, and Snowe & Collins of Maine, as well as Murkowski of Alaska are believed to be votes as well. There is a fair amount of Fox News "fair and balanced" in this ABC report but at least the Mainstream Media is bothering to mention the root causes of this failure, perhaps shamed into it by Jon Stewart. Senate Republicans last week de...

Quote Of The Day - Barney Frank
“It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It’s another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay Presidential Candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two Men Kissing. [And because of DOMA] it’s not clear that a gay president could use federal funds to buy his husband dinner. Would his partner have to pay

Joe Lieberman spearheads 'Don't Ask' repeal, DREAM act dies
Well, I'll say this for Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the only Orthodox Jew in the Senate: he lives up to his party label as “independent.” Just when it looked like he was just a hair's breadth from being a conservative Republican, he led the charge to Repeal the Military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, which passed both Houses of Congress over the weekend. This despite the fact that his best buddy and the guy he supported for the presidency in 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was po...

Sunday Night Open Thread
Larry Doyle — yes, our friend Larry Doyle! — was on CNBC and didn’t even tell us (modest guy), but I stole the video from Larry’s blog, Sense on Cents, so that you watch his appearance … Here’s a list of some of the heroes who helped Repeal DADT … And, just for fun, here’s not only a list of the crazy things that end up in people’s stomachs, but how and why (!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The CNB...

Lieberman Optimistic About DADT Repeal
Talking Points Memo reports: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has emerged as the Senate’s pointman on ending the Military’s ban on Openly Gay servicemembers, told reporters today that he’s “very optimistic” Repeal will be voted into law as soon as this weekend. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a Cloture vote on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal for tomorrow morning. Lieberman said today he’s “confident” he has the 60 votes (and...

Log Cabins Cooper Says Lawsuit Continues Until DADT is Over
Log Cabin Republican Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper got his Senate Gallery pass to watch Saturday’s historic vote repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell from Sen. Scott Brown, (R-MA), a “yes” vote and a fellow Army officer. Cooper is currently serving as a Captain in The Army Reserves. He sat in the gallery with current and former servicemembers. On the steps of the Senate after the vote, Cooper got a handshake from White House Senior Policy Advisor Valerie Jarrett an...

Victory for Liberal Social Agenda, Conservatives Say; Right Thing to Do, Military Leader Says
Monday, December 20, 2010 By Susan Jones Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, with Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., left, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaks at a news conference about the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" bill during on an unusual Saturday session on Capitol Hill in Washington Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (CNSNews.com) - Calling it a “tragic day for our Armed Forces,” the conservative Family Research Council criticized the

Asking, Telling and Testing the Waters
Posted by Rich Trzupek on Dec 20th, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Is allowing gays and Lesbians to serve openly in the United States’ Military a wise decision? It appears that we’re about to find out. Civil Rights advocates hailed Saturday’s 65-31 vote to end the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) polic...

Amendment is sought to empower states to repeal federal law
The same people driving the Lawsuits that seek to dismantle the Obama Administration's Health Care overhaul have set their sights on an even bigger target: a Constitutional Amendment that would allow a vote of the states to overturn any act of Congress. Under the proposed "Repeal amendment," any federal law or Regulation could be repealed if the legislatures of two-thirds of the states voted to do so. The idea has been propelled by the Republican victories in the Midterm Elections. Initially pro...

The Irony of hating Joe Lieberman
 Seven months ago the guy introduced a bill that would automatically strip Americans of their Citizenship if they were charged with "a Terrorist Act." He named it "the TEA Act." Why did he do that? Because he's a political troll. Not in the "living under a bridge eating goats" sense, but in the old Usenet sense of someone who purposefully enrages and frustrates members of a community, while pretending to have no idea what he's doing.   This comes from Alex Pereene of Slate magazine whe...

DADT Repeal: Gay Rights Have Come a Long Way, Baby
Joe Lieberman on Capitol Hill today. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Gay Rights victories, like today’s Repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” are inevitably linked to Stonewall, the 1969 riots that launched the modern-day LGBT movement. But 41 years ago, few gay Activists would have expected that enlisting in the Military would become such a major test of equality. Back then, gays wanted to get out of enlisting so they wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam, and the co...

War Room: Is this Lieberman's plan to win back Democrats?
Senate Armed Service Committee Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., right, talks with Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr., on Dec. 3, before the start of the committee's hearing on the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. When last we checked in on him, Joe Lieberman was facing an essentially hopeless predicament as his 2012 Reelection year approached: Winning the Democratic nomination would be out of the question (too many burned bridges), running as a Republican would be a dead end (unlike in 2006, ...

A Gay Old Time At The White House
MoDo The Red sobers up enough to ask Rep. Barney Frank if America's ready for a gay President. The running joke is we've already had at least one. As far as an Openly Gay President? Let's just say I agree with Frank that I wouldn't count on that happening as a Republican. I called Barney Frank, assuming the gay pioneer would be optimistic. He wasn’t. “It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract,” he said. “It’s another to see that person as part of a l...

New Jersey places dead last in list of business friendly states
New Jersey often plays second fiddle to neighboring New York, but a new survey of the 50 U.S. states shows the Garden State bested New York in having the least favorable tax climate for business. It's the second consecutive year New Jersey has finished dead last, according to the 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index released this week. How does New Jersey do it? In addition to having the country's highest property taxes and among the highest individual and corporate income taxes, New Jersey ...

Gary Johnson Gets Serious
I’ve gotten word from anonymous sources that Gov. Johnson plans to step up his “unofficial” campaign activities in the new year: Besides major media centers (like NY, DC, & LA), Gov. Gary Johnson is going to be restricting his travels for Q1 2010 entirely to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina-but he’s primarily going to be camping out in NH. His traveling schedule for Q1 is booked solely with events that are 500-1000+ in attendance, with major med...

Political Insider challenged: AIPAC didn't push resolution on Palestinian unilateralism
In the interests of honest reporting, I have to tell you: my blog headlined “big fight over non-binding resolution on Palestinian Unilateralism” was misleading. After posting, I quickly heard from several Capitol Hill sources who reported that AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying giant, surprisingly had little to do with the measure, which asserts that “a true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties&rd...;

GOP Senator Calls Cops on 9/11 Responders
Republican senators were so worried about meeting with 9/11 responders who came to Washington today that at least one called the cops on them, the Daily News has learned. Even before the nine responders had a chance to start visiting senators' offices - where they intended to stay until meeting with legislators - they were greeted by Capitol Police, who had been called by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.). Collins apparently reacted to a story in today's News which quoted a letter to senators from 9/11...

A majority: Now with less responsibility!
Whitehouse argues the Senate GOP leadership gets to have all the power of the majority without all that pesky “governing” business: Thirty-three Senate seats are on the ballot in 2012, and 23 of those are Democratic (including two Independents who Caucus with the Dems). Republicans have 10 seats to defend, and only GOP Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts is worried about losing his job. In 2011, a good number of those 23 Democratic Caucus members will do more listening and more of the ...

Timeline of Full DADT Repeal Unclear
Politico reports: Even before President Barack Obama scribbles his signature on the Legislation repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” gay Advocacy Groups are pushing the Pentagon to implement Repeal in a matter of weeks. But others — including the chiefs of staff of the services — are asking for more time. Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” was a priority for Obama even during his Presidential Campaign. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sun