POLITICS: Democrats: We Have the Votes to Repeal 'Don't Ask'!

Senate Democrats say they have the support to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, even if John McCain tries to filibuster it. “I am confident that we have more than 60 votes,” Joe Lieberman told reporters yesterday, according to the Hill. “I repeat, there’s more than 60 senators, I’m convinced, who are prepared to vote for this bill including ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” In exchange, Democrats will have to “guarantee a fair and open amendment process.”

Republicans in other words, will insist on proposing and forcing votes on several amendments. Susan Collins has confirmed that given those conditions, she’d back repeal, and Lieberman says Dick Lugar would jump across the aisle, too. But some Democrats are weary of such a process. “This is about those who oppose this policy wanting to kill it, and ... using Senate rules to do that,” said one Democrat. Lieberman, meanwhile, says he’s tried to convince his buddy McCain to back off. “I’ve had discussions,” he says. “I’ve had no success.”