Don’t Ask, Don’t Debate

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

The legislative process is almost never uplifting. But if you watch the United States Senate in action these days, you come away convinced that the nation has jumped the shark.

On Tuesday, the Senate failed to override a Republican filibuster of a defense authorization bill. This is a new record for dysfunction. Until now, even when politics was at its worst, Congress did manage to vote to pay the Army.

The bill did contain a lot of controversial pieces. It eliminated the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule for gays serving openly in the military. And the majority leader, Harry Reid, tacked on a provision that would allow undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children to win a path to citizenship if they serve in the military or go to college.

So the debate was about ... parliamentary procedure.

“I cannot vote to proceed to this bill under a situation that is going to shut down debate and preclude Republican amendments,” said Senator Susan Collins of Maine. She supports repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but neither that nor pay raises for the troops could compare to the principle of unfettered amending.

(More here.)