Make sure you put a s on the end of the asshat. Making history the bad way. .
Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and John Cornyn (R-TX) all voted against cloture, despite their pleas during the Bush administration that a president’s Cabinet nominees should receive an up-or-down vote.
Four Republicans, Sens. Thad Cochran (R-MI), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mike Johanns (R-NE), voted to break the filibuster. The final vote was 58-40, with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) voting present and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) voting “no” as a procedural move so that he can bring another vote to the floor at a later date.
Now Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta smothered another one, at least for now. Apparently, Republicans can put down their military weapons, stop hyperventilating, stop frothing at the mouth, and start backing off of their accusations that President Obama (and Chuck Hagel, while we’re at it) is a big ol’ wuss, especially when it comes to Iran.
If you recall, Saxby Chambliss is one of the panicky GOP who think Iran is on the verge of having their very own nuke, and the U.S. better be ready to pounce. And by pounce, I mean attack. And by attack, I mean create a brand spankin’ new and enormous Middle East crisis. And by Middle East crisis, I mean world crisis.
“If your position is truly prevention and not containment, Chuck, what is the redline [on Iran], what is the point?” asked Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). “We know there’s some things happening over there right now that are very serious.”
Yes, we must take Iran very seriously and keep our ideas and options wide open, but let’s not revive this golden oldie quite yet, mmkay chickenhawks?
Panetta on Meet the Press:
Leon Panetta: What I’ve said, and I will say today, is that the intelligence we have is they have not made the decision to proceed with the development a nuclear weapon. They are developing and enriching uranium, they continue to do that…
Chuck Todd: Why do you believe they’re doing that?
Panetta: I think it’s a clear indication — They say they’re doing that to be able to do their own energy source. I think it is suspect that they continue to enrich uranium, because that is dangerous, and that violates international rules.
Todd: You believe that they are probably developing nuclear weapons, but you don’t, the intelligence doesn’t —
Panetta: No, I can’t — I can’t tell you they are in fact pursuing a weapon, because that’s what not intelligence says they’re doing right now.
The link only has the one sentence, but Twitter had this via the AP via senior defense officials:
Panetta removes military ban on women in combat, opening thousands of front line positions. U.S. military has until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe certain positions should remain closed to women.
Waiting for more details, so take it for what it’s worth.
The reaction on Twitter has gone from incredulous to celebratory to this:
“Not enough. Lift the entire ban, and stop discriminating against women and barring entire career fields on gender alone.”
UPDATE: Multiple officials have confirmed this to CNN. CNN (H/t: @rockrichard, more at the link):
… Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will make the announcement tomorrow and notify Congress of the planned change in policy.
“We will eliminate the policy of ‘no women in units that are tasked with direct combat,’” a senior defense official says.
But the officials caution that “not every position will open all at once on Thursday.” Once the policy is changed, the Department of Defense will enter what is being called an “assessment phase,” in which each branch of service will examine all of its jobs and units not currently integrated and then produce a timetable in which it can integrate them.
The Army and Marine Corps, especially, will be examining physical standards and gender-neutral accommodations within combat units. Every 90 days, the service chiefs will have to report back on their progress.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Officials said Thursday that they’re planning the first-ever event to recognize gay and lesbian troops. They declined to give details about what the event will be, but officials said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta feels it’s important to recognize the service of gays in the armed forces.
Anyone hear anything yet about how repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell turned all our troops into evil French gay socialists?
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