Reply #7: Nice summary [View All]

[karynnj]

Lieberman is quoted in the Boston Globe saying that the Republicans may block the START treaty if DADT fails, but that does not seem likely. The reason is that there is a segment of the Republicans that do consider the treaty important. ( http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/12/17/brown_says_he_will_vote_to_repeal_dont_ask_dont_tell/ )

Listening to the debate yesterday, many of the Republican objections yesterday were not even germane to the Treaty. Inhoffe spoke of it being unfair to the "new Senators" - even though they are obviously not Senators yet. Others want more on military goodies, that are NOT precluded by the treaty.

The scary thing is what was sacrificed - the budget. But it may be that "sacrificed" overstates things, because it was absolutely not going to pass because there was not a single Republican willing to vote for it. This will be a bitter battle next year as the House will over reach - and will try to defund Democratic programs.