GOP blocks 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal

WASHINGTON - Republicans blocked a last-ditch effort in the Senate to lift the military's ban on openly gay troops yesterday, dealing a major defeat to gay rights groups and making it unlikely Congress could repeal "don't ask, don't tell" any time soon.

The 57-40 vote fell three short of the 60 needed to overcome procedural hurdles to lift the 17-year-old ban. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the lone Republican voting to advance the bill, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the only Democrat to vote against it.

The rejection was a defeat for President Barack Obama, who campaigned promising to overturn the law and later called it one of his top legislative priorities for the year. But in the end, the White House did little to push the legislation, focusing its influence instead on tax cuts and a nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

Still, shortly after Senate Republicans voted to block the effort, Obama urged the Senate to try again before the end of the year.

The president expressed disappointment with the vote. But "it must not be the end of our efforts," he said in a statement.

Repeal advocates also said the fight wasn't over, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seemed to have little appetite to return to the subject with only a week left in the lame-duck session and other major legislation pending.

"The other side may feel passionately that our military should sanction discrimination based on sexual orientation, but they are clearly in the minority," Reid (D-Nev.) said of Republicans. "And they have run out of excuses."

Gay-rights advocates were furious because the Senate vote failed largely because of a procedural disagreement.

"Instead of doing what is right, the world's greatest deliberative body devolved into shameful school-yard spats that put petty partisan politics above the needs of our women and men in uniform," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group.

The 1993 law bans gay troops from publicly acknowledging their sexual orientation. A repeal provision was included in a broader military policy bill and passed last spring in the House.

More than 60 senators were expected to support repeal, with at least four Republicans having said they support overturning "don't ask, don't tell." But GOP senators were united in demanding that the Senate vote on tax cuts first. They also wanted assurances by Reid they would be given extensive time to debate on the defense bill, which contained other divisive provisions, including one that would allow abortions at overseas military facilities.