Let’s see if the eleventy billionth time is the charm:
House Democratic leaders have decided to make one last push to repeal the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly before the end of the lame-duck Congress.
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, said he and Representative Patrick J. Murphy, Democrat of Pennsylvania, would bring a stand-alone repeal of the ban to the floor as early as Wednesday.
The House move comes in response to the Senate’s failure last week to break a Republican filibuster against a broader Pentagon measure that would have lifted the ban.
Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, urged Senate leaders to try to pass a separate measure ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule, untangling the issue from the broader measure.
The way this is being done, it would only have to go through one procedural vote in the Senate, which would require sixty votes.
Here’s hoping.
