Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Well, I stayed up a little too late watching election results. It was worth it to watch the reactions to the win by Teabagger/Masturbation Authority Christine O'Donnell in Delaware's GOP Senate primary. This one is causing lots of strife within the GOP. Love it.

We still don't know who the GOP nominee for Senate is in New Hampshire. It's a battle between two right wing homophobes: Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne. Right now, it's too close to call. We do know who the Democratic nominee for Senate in NH is. That's Paul Hodes and he'll be joining us for a live chat tonight from 6 - 7 PM Eastern. There's going to be a very clear choice in New Hampshire between a supporter of marriage equality and a hater (whichever GOP candidate wins.)

In DC, incumbent mayor, Adrian Fenty, lost to Vincent Gray. Not unexpected. The National Organization for Marriage took a major hit. Its one candidate for City Council, Delano Hunter, lost by a 3 to 1 margin. The incumbent, Harry Thomas, Jr., sailed to reelection. NOM is obsessed with DC because we have same-sex marriage. But, NOM's campaign of hate and homophobia lost big.

We can expect Senator Levin on the floor either today or tomorrow to see if that body can proceed on the Defense Authorization bill. If McCain or McConnell objects, it means they're filibustering the Defense bill while we're fighting two wars. Imagine if Democrats ever did that???? Harry Reid will then file a motion for cloture, which sets off a 30-hour period of debate before a vote. That vote will probably be next Tuesday. That's the key vote on whether the Senate can break the filibuster. Remember, both Susan Collins and Scott Brown voted for this Defense bill in the Senate Armed Services Committee last May. Will they filibuster it now? If we break the filibuster, then we can worry about potential amendments that would strike the DADT language for the bill or change the certification process. By the time the Defense bill makes it through conference, we'll probably be in December -- and the Pentagon's study on DADT is due December 1. The study will be completed before the legislation becomes law -- and that's what GOPers claim they want.

The President is going to speak tonight at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Awards Dinner.

There's a lot going on...