The big breakthrough on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell came about a month ago, when Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) sat down with his Senate counterparts to tell them he had the votes to repeal DADT, Murphy told TPMDC in an interview today. That, he said, kick-started the Senate into action.
“I told the leadership I have the votes, let’s bring this up,” Murphy said. He and House leaders then met with Sens. Joe Lieberman and Carl Levin, he said, “and then they started working once they realized we had the votes in the House.”
“We did this together,” he said.
Murphy got a big victory last night when, after a year of whipping votes one by one, his amendment passed the House in a vote of 234 to 194.
The amendment would repeal the policy that forbids openly gay men and women from serving in the military. But, in a compromise with military brass, it allows the Pentagon to implement repeal after it completes a policy review in December.
Although they support the compromise, both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chair Adm. Mike Mullen have said they would have preferred Congress to wait. Republicans have based their opposition on waiting for the review.
But Murphy, a veteran of the Iraq War, said there just wasn’t time.
“Our troops are stretched so think in Iraq and Afghanistan … these multiple rotations are tearing at the very fabric of the military family,” he said. The American people know, he said, that “we need to act with a sense of urgency here.”
The amendment is part of the must-pass Defense Authorization bill, and Murphy said that threats to filibuster the authorization bill over DADT repeal are “petty.”
“For them to play politics on something like this,” he said, “and stand in the way, I think would be pretty petty.”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a vocal opponent of repealing the policy before the Pentagon finishes its study, has threatened to filibuster.
Murphy also said the repeal amendment might make it easier for some liberal Democrats to vote for the authorization bill.
“For someone in the liberal wing of the Democratic party, they’re going to be more apt to vote for this bill because it finally strengthens national security,” he said. He added that this morning, he was working out with an unnamed progressive who told Murphy he’d be able to vote for the defense spending bill “for the first time in years.”
Last year, 20 House Democrats voted against the bill.
The Senate counterpart to Murphy’s amendment passed the armed services committee last night as well.
