'Don't ask': House OKs repeal, Senate votes next

Washington - — The House passed a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on open gays and lesbians in the military on Wednesday, breathing new life into the effort to end the 17-year-old policy this year. The legislation passed by a 250-175 vote.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, engineered the dramatic turnaround as one of her last acts leading the House, adopting a special parliamentary maneuver that reduces from two to one the number of filibuster threats the legislation faces in the Senate and allows it to be brought up at any moment.

The tactic saves time in the waning days of the outgoing Congress, where the lifespan of the repeal effort is counted in hours. It also puts pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to fulfill a long-standing pledge by President Obama, repeated in his State of the Union address almost a year ago, to repeal the Clinton-era ban.

Breaking ranks

Repeal supporters insisted they have the 60 Senate votes they need, and maybe more, to defeat a Republican filibuster.

They are relying on public commitments from Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins, who broke ranks with her party on a repeal vote last week, and Olympia Snowe, who said Wednesday she would vote yes; and Scott Brown of Massachusetts or Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Brown and Murkowski issued statements this month that cited an exhaustive 10-month Pentagon study, released Nov. 30, that said repeal would not harm the military.

A handful of moderate GOP senators are also considered possible yes votes.

Stand-alone repeal

But all these Republicans, with the exception of Collins, contributed to the meltdown of the repeal effort last week when they voted to block consideration of the defense bill to which repeal was attached.

One Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted against repeal last week, The 57-40 final tally indicated that repeal needs three Republican votes to pass.

Reid had called the vote on the defense bill, which included the repeal bill, knowing it would fail. The move took Collins and Joe Lieberman, independent-Conn., who had been negotiating with Republicans, by surprise. But they immediately introduced a stand-alone repeal.

The House version is identical, so if the bill clears the Senate, it would be enacted with Obama's signature.

Reid promised this week to bring the stand-alone repeal to a vote and threatened, if necessary, to call the Senate back to work after Christmas to finish its remaining work.