Dream On

Harry Reid's blatant vote-buying attempt by attaching the DREAM Act and the repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell to the Defense Appropriations Act has miserably failed.  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a lengthy statement which wraps up like this:

“It seems like the more Americans say they want Democrats to stop what they’re doing and focus on jobs and the economy, the more determined they are to press ahead with their various liberal agenda items while they’ve still got the chance. And that’s basically what today’s vote on the Defense Authorization Bill is all about.

“The defense authorization bill requires four or five weeks to debate at a minimum.

“But instead of having that debate or turning to the Defense Appropriations Bill which funds the military, they want to use this week for a political exercise they want to weigh this bill down with controversy in a transparent attempt to show their special interest groups that they haven’t forgotten about them ahead of the election.

“It’s astonishing, really.

“Democrats have called up this bill not to have a vote on it or to consider amendments to help our troops in the field, but to put on a show to use it as an opportunity to cast votes for things Americans either don’t want or aren’t interested in seeing attached to a bill that’s supposed to be about defense.

“The Majority Leader has already said this bill isn’t going to pass with these items attached to it before the election but he’s keeping them on there anyway.

“So this is not a serious exercise. It’s a show.

“And it’s because of shows like this that our friends have lost credibility with the public.

“Americans want us to take care of the basics and to do it competently.

“This isn’t too much to ask.

“But evidently, it’s too much to ask of Democrat leaders in Congress before the election.”

No Republicans voted for it. A few Democrats defected. Playing with the Defense Authorization Bill was a stupid political gamble and Harry Reid lost.