57-40

Susan Collins voted with the Dems to break the GOP filibuster of the Defense Authorization Bill. Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, and Richard Lugar—each of whom made pretty little noises about supporting the repeal of DADT—all voted with the GOP to block repeal.

Now let's pretend that the Dems had blocked a Defense Authorization Bill during wartime. The GOP would spin it this as attack on the troops and proof that the Dems were hopelessly out of touch with mainstream America (which supports the repeal of DADT by wide margins—even Republicans support the repeal of DADT). Because the GOP plays politics to win.

Well, gee. There's still time—in theory—for the Senate to act. But fuck 'em: here's hoping we get a ruling from a judge that stops all expulsions under DADT. That's what Defense Secretary Gates warned the Senate about during his testimony; if they didn't pass the DADT repeal, a judge was likely to step in and order an immediate end to DADT. (Hey, did you know that the bill being debated didn't actually end DADT?)

And that will, of course, be good for the Republicans. They'll get to scream and yell about judicial tyranny, liberal judges, and legislating from the bench—all because they successfully blocked all efforts to, you know, legislate from the legislature.