If there is one thing that may make Richard Blumenthal feel better about questions regarding his service during the Vietnam era, it may be that in Illinois, Representative Mark Kirk has much the same issues.
The Republican is under increased scrutiny because he is running for Barack Obama's old Senate seat in Illinois, and questions have emerged about an earlier claim that he was intelligence officer of the year. The Associated Press reported that the alleged award appeared on both his website and his official biography, both of which have been scrubbed.
Kirk is in a tight race with Democratic hopeful Alexi Giannoulias, the state treasurer.
During his State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Now, we have a chance to help make good on that promise.
The House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee have already voted in favor of repeal, and debate in the Senate will soon start. But some Republicans have already announced their plans to block the repeal.
We can defeat those who'd stand in the way of history. But we must show our senators that Americans -- in every state -- overwhelmingly support repeal.
Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee could make history.
Behind the leadership of Chairman Carl Levin, the Senate committee is on the verge of passing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would remove "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from federal statute and set the stage for eventual repeal.
That's the good news. The bad news is that this is far, far, far from over.
Roll Call is reporting that Sen. John McCain will "without a doubt" support an unprecedented filibuster of the entire defense budget to stop the repeal of DADT if the bill comes to the floor of the full Senate.
It gets worse. According to the New York Times, McCain also solicited letters from the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines -- that object to the repeal amendment supported by President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen.
McCain's shocking obstructionism is being amplified by the right-wing Family Research Council, which released a video on Wednesday attempting to drive a wedge between the Joint Chiefs and the President, claiming Obama is trying to "force open homosexuality on the military."
Call Your Senator and tell them to support repealing "Don't ask Don't Tell"
Year-Long Project Tracking the Participation and Preference Among the Rising American Electorate
Democrats need to make substantial political progress in the next six months. The basic problem is math. Currently independent voters prefer Republicans over Democrats by two to one in congressional trial heats. Other groups, such as blue collar whites and white seniors are similarly lopsided in their preferences. More competitive margins are possible with these groups, but that could come too late, and there are more immediate places to make up the numbers.
Good places to start are among unmarried women, young people and people of color. Voters we call the Rising American Electorate (RAE), who make up the majority of the voting age population in the country and voters who drove progressive victories in 2006 and 2008. They remain supportive but not nearly in the same numbers. They can help rescue Democrats from a very forgettable electoral cycle in 2010. Unmarried women alone make up 25 percent of the population and can have the biggest impact.
This joint project by Women’s Voices. Women Vote Action Fund and Democracy Corps highlights distinct opportunities among these voters, but also core problems that need real attention and major political investments to make right.
Voters in the Rising American Electorate are less engaged than other voters. Historically, these voters typically drop out of off-year elections in greater than average numbers. This survey continues to show a turn out problem, which we have tracked all year among these voters.
Democratic margins are down among these voters relative to 2008 and even 2006, particularly among unmarried women and the young. Support among African–Americans remains strong, but some evidence emerges that Hispanic support is down.
The pay–off for attending to this problem is made plain in the margins among those voters in the Rising American Electorate who are least likely to vote. Among RAE likely voters, Democrats enjoy a 58 to 32 percent margin (26 points) in congressional balloting, a decent number, but down from prior cycles and not enough to compensate for losses elsewhere. Among 2008 voters who say they might not vote in 2010, however, this margin jumps to 39 points (63 to 24 percent), close to what Democrats saw in the last election cycle.
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