I’m not trying to be too alarming but we don’t have much time to get repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell passed in the defense authorization bill. Things are looking very bleak for passage of the defense authorization bill, at least for this year. And who knows how many seats we’ll have next year? People have been sold a whole bunch of lies on this repeal bill, starting from the fact that it’s not repeal itself – it just allows repeal to happen if certain conditions are met and then three people sign off on it. Yet, we’ve heard the loud pronouncements that "DADT is dead" on certain leftist political blogs.

A lot of us don’t even like this bill, but this is the bill and I’ll be damned if I let Reid and others push it aside until after December during the lame duck session, Democrats have promised not to pass any major legislation.

Some of us have worked really hard to push back on this meme that DADT is finished, because we knew that we’d lack the help we need as the minutes wind down and the time slips away to repeal DADT. And look what’s happening. We have maybe two legislative weeks to get this done and it’s not even on the schedule yet. We need help here. DADT is not dead and we need to get Majority Leader Reid to agree to take up the bill before the break.

The Advocate says:

Now all eyes must turn to the Senate, which returns to Washington next week. Senators will have a short window to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal measure already passed by the House. If the Senate passes the bill in September, “don’t ask, don’t tell” will fade into history shortly thereafter. If not, then we’re looking at a long road ahead.

Yet Senate majority leader Harry Reid still has not scheduled a floor vote on the act, and his spokesman has tepidly stated to The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld that a vote is “on the list of things we would like to do in the next few weeks.” A failure to vote on the bill prior to October 8 would push it into the post-midterms lame-duck period; in that case its chances of passage would drop to “50-50,” according to one of Eleveld’s sources.

The New York Times goes into more detail, and it’s very distressing:

Further, while groups that support a ban are now ratcheting up pressure on members of the Senate to vote on a measure ending the policy, there is a slim chance that the bill will make it to the floor before Congress heads home next month to campaign for the midterm elections.

The Senate has considerable other business to take up over a short period of time, largely bills pertaining to taxes and the economy. Quick enactment of this policy change, which would be made through an amendment to a larger Pentagon authorization bill, seems unlikely, especially given widespread opposition among conservatives.

There is also the political reality that Democrats in competitive states and districts are unlikely to want to engage in a fight over an issue of social policy and risk further energizing conservative voters just seven weeks before Election Day.

I guess Republicans’ newly discovered tolerance of gay people was short lived. They are still objecting to a defense authorization bill which contains a "controversial" amendment that 75% of Americans support. The other day when people were praising them, some of us tried to give a warning. But alas.  . . .

This could mean the end of repeal prospects for an indeterminate amount of time. Maybe until the courts solve the issue. So if I sound like my hair’s on fire, you know why. Reid’s spokesman drove the nail deeper into the coffin for its prospects for passing when he said that we need some Republican cooperation. Yeah? Who’re we gonna find? I think last time the only Republican who voted to add it to the bill was Collins. So, we probably need to start asking her if she can work with Democrats to get this bill passed.

Politico says the Senate’s chances for taking up the bill are declining:

“WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY? — The chances that the Senate will take up the National Defense Authorization Act before the next recess are declining by the minute; ‘contingency planning’ is now the operative phrase. Defense industry and lobbying sources are scrambling to prepare for any number of possible courses of action that are dependent on congressional leadership, and, to some extent, election poll results.”

If we are going to depend on election results, the whole thing is terminally fucked. We’ve seen how the Democrats already think it’s 1994 all over again and if they just act as conservative as possible it will minimize losses. After their Massive Defeat (!!!) (a loss of probably just a few seats) in November, it will be impossible to even mention passing something to the timid Majority Leader Reid without watching him scramble for cover.

This has to get passed before October.

And remember, Reid says every bill takes up about seven days, so they need to start the second they get back in session. We need to demand this. If you think things are bad now, just watch how bad it will get if DADT is dropped right before the election, and the Obama administration announces that it is going to appeal the DOMA case AND the DADT case, all within two weeks of the election, around the time that the sixty day window for an appeal will lapse. This scares me. I would like Democrats to win on this. Especially after the embarrassing victory the (Log Cabin) Republicans just snatched out from under Democrats on DADT.

Could we all make some calls and write some emails? Let’s make them do this. This is an immoral policy that hurts our military and stigmatizes gay soldiers. Let’s fight Reid on this until this policy is in the dustbin of history.

Senate Contact Info

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Scottie Thomaston (indiemcemopants) is a 26-year-old Alabama blogger who has written about politics on various blogs since age seventeen. A disabled, ‘out’ gay man, his principal themes have been LGBT rights, torture, NSA spying and the challenges of disability. His pieces have appeared on Daily Kos (where he also moderates a community series on disability), Firedoglake; and on his own blog, "Ignorance is…" The quality of his writing earned him a 2010 Netroots Nation scholarship from Democracy For America and a citation in the New York Times Opinionator column. He is actively building his career as a professional new media journalist.

You can find him on Twitter: @indiemcemopants

[Photo: The Other Pete via Flickr]