Filibuster Unlikely To Affect Pentagon Study On DADT Repeal

The Senate’s filibuster against the Defense Authorization bill, staged in part due to language on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, will not affect the Pentagon commissioned review on how to best wind-down the controversial policy currently barring openly gay soldiers from military service.

“What occurred yesterday in the Senate was an internal, legislative, procedural matter. It doesn’t change our efforts,” Pentagon spokesperson Col. David Lapan told reporters Wednesday. “The working group continues to complete their task.”

The study, which will in part measure the effects the repeal will have on military readness and unit cohesion, is scheduled to be delivered to the Defense Secretary in early December.

The review includes a survey issued to U.S. servicemen and women. According to Lapan, 115,000 were returned, marking a response rate of 29 percent.

“People who do this for a living tell us that this is above what a normal response rate is,” Lapan noted.

Efforts to sidestep a filibuster Tuesday only received support from 57 Senators, landing short of the 60 procedurally needed to open the legislation up for formal debate. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, used the ongoing study to defend his opposition.

“The Senate should not be forced to make this decision now before we have heard from our troops,” McCain said from the floor of the upper chamber.

Stimulus Has The "Summertime Blues"

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) released a report Tuesday entitled “Summertime Blues,” which lists 100 stimulus bill funded projects that to do not create jobs.

“We have a total now of over 300 projects [and] over $15 billion,” said Coburn. “Could we have used that 15 billion in a way that would have given us a greater economic return, a greater multiplier effect and actually had greater impact on the country? I think so.”

With unemployment rates hovering in the ninth percentile, McCain said he believes that, coupled with sinking GDP levels, unemployment is set to increase throughout the year, digging the country a deeper hole to climb out of.

“The American people have the summertime blues, as unemployment is at 9.5%, over half the homes in my homestate of Arizona are still underwater, and we have seen a decline in the Gross Domestic Product,” he said. “That indicates we are in for a long, difficult year of high unemployment.” 

Petraeus Collapses, Afghanistan Hearing Postponed

By Justin Duckham & Miles Wolf Tamboli-Talk Radio News Service

Cencom Commander General David Petraeus appeared to pass out during a Senate Armed Services hearing on Afghanistan Tuesday.

Petraeus slumped over suddenly during an exchange with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He seemed to recover several moments later and was escorted from the room. The Committee called a brief recess.

The General returned shortly after and told Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that he “just got dehydrated,” joking that the incident was not caused by Senator McCain's questioning.

Petraeus fainted shortly after Senator McCain asserted that the General was, "one of America's great heroes."

Despite Petraeus’s return to the witness table and insistence that he was in good health and completely competent to continue the hearing, Levin "overruled" his claims and stated that the Committee would reschedule Tuesday’s meeting for the following day.

Those in attendance applauded as Petraeus departed.

Feingold: Campaign Finance Ruling Was A "Tragic Error"

As one of the co-architects of significant campaign finance reform legislation, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) was naturally displeased by the Supreme Court's recent decision to allow corporate funding of election advertisements.

“The Supreme Court’s decision ... was a tragic error,” Feingold said Tuesday. “It has harmed our democracy in ways that ... will likely become clear over the next few election cycles.”

The 5-4 ruling, which was made in Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission, denies that the FEC can restrict corporate spending on the grounds that it violates corporations’ rights to free speech, a notion Feingold claims “makes no sense.”

“Corporations can’t vote or run for office, they don’t have feelings or thoughts,” Feingold argued. “They don’t speak of make decisions except through individuals.”

Feingold, along with Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The legislation restricted the use of soft money and prohibited corporations from placing ads in the lead up to primaries or general elections.

McCain, Bayh Heed Obama's Call To Freeze Spending

Ask and you shall receive.

Just one day after White House officials announced that President Barack Obama will soon call for a freeze on federal non-discretionary spending, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Even Bayh (D-Ind.) introduced The Fiscal Freeze Act of 2010.

“We have to stand with those who are paying the bills and show that the government can discipline itself and make the difficult decisions just as families as businesses do each and every day, and in so doing perhaps began the process of rehabilitating the reputation of the government in the minds of the people,” said Bayh.

Bayh, who earlier in the day learned that he will not be facing popular conservative Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) in his Senate re-election race this fall, said that the bipartisan bill would focus on imposing a moratorium on earmark spending and would create a new trust fund-esque deficit reduction account. The legislation would also include protections against potential government shutdowns, he added.

The releasing of the bill comes as the Senate awaits a vote on whether or not to raise the nation’s debt ceiling another $1.9 trillion, from roughly $12.4 trillion to $14.3 trillion. Critics have called on the Obama administration to cut spending for weeks, and it appears now that those calls are getting through.

However, on the day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address to Congress, there is more buzz now surrounding the deficit than at any other time in his presidency. Much of that has to do with the fact that Congress’s $787 stimulus bill, while increasing the nation's debt, has had essentially no positive effect on the country’s unemployment rate. Coupled with a roughly $900 billion healthcare reform bill that still has an outside shot of passing, it’s become clear that the administration has thus far prioritized spending to help grow a struggling economy over balancing a ballooning federal budget.

But McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 election, said Tuesday that the budget can be fixed if enough Members are willing to tackle the problem.

“The reaction to this is gonna be, ‘it’s too hard, you cant do it,’ well look...to say we can’t do it and it’s too hard neglects the realities of the incredible dramatic increase in spending.”