Like I have been telling you, Susan Collins is the “moderate” face that the Republican caucus is using to kill the repeal of DADT:
We talked earlier Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) surprise move this morning: he’s getting started tonight on the defense authorization act, which includes a provision on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” I talked to a senior Senate aide who’s helped flesh out where things stand in more detail.
At this point, Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine, who claims to support repeal, appears to be the senator who stands in the way of success. On Friday, Collins had a lengthy meeting with Reid and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), trying to resolve her concerns and clear the way for passage. They didn’t reach an agreement.
This was soon followed by President Obama reaching out to Collins directly over the weekend, urging her to do the right thing. They didn’t reach an agreement, either. This led to additional talks between Reid and Collins this morning.
In a nutshell, Collins is asking Democratic leaders for unlimited debate on the defense bill. Reid, in turn, is offering Collins a compromise: votes on 10 separate amendments*, seven of which would come from Republicans, three of which would come from Democrats.
Collins has responded that this isn’t good enough, and she’ll refuse to let the Senate vote up or down on the legislation.
It’s worth emphasizing that Collins just isn’t being reasonable. Looking back over the last couple of decades, a total of 10 amendments is entirely routine for this defense authorization bill, and is actually far more than the number of amendments considered most of the time.
Why not just give in and tell Collins she can have unlimited debate? Because Republicans really are desperate to kill the legislation, and the most far-right members will keep offering unrelated amendments indefinitely, running out the clock on the lame-duck session, and derailing the bill.
It has been so obvious this is what she has been doing that some idiot who was dumb enough to vote for Bush has told you EXACTLY what she is doing. Not once, but twice.
This needs to be said, over, and over, and over again- there is no such thing as a moderate Republican. They are all rotten to the core. They either agree with everything the frothing lunatics in the party want to do, or they enable it. Susan Collins may fool herself into thinking she is not a bigot because she personally supports ending DADT, but if you ask me, the wife who sews eyeholes into pillow cases and the kisses her husband on the cheek as he heads off to the Klan rally is as culpable and as much a scumbag as he.
Any idiot “independents” who can not figure this out, or anyone who pretends to be a “reasonable Republican” should be called out for their complicity.