Arkansas Gays to Sen. Blanche Lincoln: Don't Ask (For Our Vote)

Lincoln and Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor were the only two Democrats who joined all 40 Republicans in voting to block the bill. The Democratic majority needed 60 votes to break a filibuster and begin consideration of the bill -- which would repeal a law preventing gays from serving openly in the military -- but fell short 43 to 56.
On Tuesday night, Arkansas' Stonewall Democrats, a Democratic Party GLBT caucus that has about 300 members statewide, had planned a fundraiser for Lincoln at a private home in Little Rock. On Monday, she called the event's organizers to say that she had to cancel her appearance in order to return to Washington to be part of a historic vote, said Debbie Willhite, a political consultant and a member of the Arkansas' Stonewall Democrats.
"She said she was going to Washington and hopefully be the 60th or 61st vote to move 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' forward," Willhite told Politics Daily. "It's very disappointing. I think she took a position on the procedure like she did on health care. She didn't do the right thing that she seemed to indicate to us that she was ready to do. If it was just a battle of whose procedural rules were going to carry the day, it seems to have been intuitive to vote with the Democratic leadership."

Lincoln said she voted against the measure on procedural grounds.

On Wednesday, she told Politics Daily in an e-mail: "I'm disappointed that some believe this procedural vote alters my support for allowing the military to repeal DADT. This is not true. This issue was taken hostage by election-year politics. I voted against this procedure because of the lack of an open amendment process; in fact, I had eight amendments to improve the quality of life for our troops that could not be considered. Yesterday could have been a bipartisan show of support for repealing DADT, but the procedure that was chosen made that impossible."

In a statement released on Tuesday after the vote, she said, "I am a cosponsor of the DREAM Act, and have stated that I will support the Lieberman compromise, which would repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy when our military commanders say it is appropriate for our military readiness and national security."

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09...-for-our-vote/

Wouldn't this make it 59 votes including Reid? Some voted nay just because of the way they pushed the bill, Some have said they'd vote aye if the Dream Act was a stand-alone bill.

From my understanding, Lincoln and Pryor would have voted Aye yesterday if one Republican had crossed over to vote Yes.

However, since no Republican was willing to vote yes, it didn't matter much that Lincoln and Pryor voted No. Their vote wouldn't change the outcome anyway.

fuking GOP, not even fuking one

The way Senate votes nowadays is not the way it was formed for by founding fathers. US founding fathers made Senate with intentions to have SMART people on senate, not dumb asses like McCain, McConnell, Boehner, and other Reps. Can anyone in his RIGHT mind vote for those people r new candidates like O'Donnell?

We need to push for a stand alone vote on the Dream act itself. From what I've been reading, there are republican senators will to vote for the dream act and only oppossed because of the process being used by Senator Reid.