BREAKING: House passes repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell amendment

Watching CSPAN live now. Earlier, the Senate Armed Services committee voted 16-12 to give the Pentagon the power to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Now the House just voted on their amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. It passed!

The Murphy amendment, which has won the support of Democratic leaders and the White House, would repeal the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” statute only after the Pentagon finishes its review of repeal implementation and President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen certify that repeal can be achieved consistent with the military’s standards of readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion and recruitment and retention. Some House Democrats suggested the language is not strong enough.

One step closer to justice. As Rachel just said, it’s not over, but it’s a huge huge step.

The Democrats wanted this done before the November elections, because they knew they’d lose votes.

As I write this, the count is 230-191.

Updating: 231-192.

Updating: 4 Republicans have voted in favor so far…  233-193.

Final: 5 Republicans voted in favor. Vote: 234-194. Not voting: 6 Dems, 4 Republicans (I think I saw the Republican not-voting number correctly, the numbers flashed off before I could be sure).

UPDATE:

Five Republicans, Charles Djou (Hawaii), Joseph Cao (Louisiana), Judy Biggert (Illinois), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida) and Ron Paul (Texas), joined Democrats in approving the measure.