Repeal advocates are mounting an effort to push back on Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia for voting against “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal in committee in order to keep other Democrats from doing the same on the Senate floor.
“We hope that Virginians will not give Senator Jim Webb a pass on his vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee to keep ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ on the books,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “His vote was against equality, and fair-minded Virginians should take exception.”
One of those Virginians is retired Navy captain Joan Darrah, who served in silence for nearly 20 years and felt betrayed by Webb’s vote after speaking with the senator twice about ending the gay ban.
“I felt that Senator Webb was open-minded and supportive of repeal as long as there was a well-thought-out implementation plan,” she said of those conversations. “The current legislative proposal includes such a plan, so I was very disappointed with his vote in committee.”
Sarvis said holding Webb accountable for his committee vote is an important part of sending a message to Webb’s counterpart, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, that voting against repeal on the Senate floor will have consequences among his constituents.
“It is our hope that Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia will do the right thing when the defense bill is debated and voted on the Senate floor,” he said.
Advocates are gearing up for two potentialities: needing 60 votes to overcome a filibuster of the entire National Defense Authorization Act, which provides funding for the nation’s defense programs and the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, among many other things; and needing 51 votes to defeat what some refer to as a “killer” amendment that might negate the DADT repeal measure or significantly alter its intent.
SLDN and other organizations are in the process of developing a list of
Senate Democrats who might be inclined to vote in a way that could
jeopardize repeal efforts. "We have had meetings all last week and this
week with member offices and we're firming up the list of whom we need
to shore up support with," said Trevor Thomas, a spokesperson for SLDN.
Although they are still engaging lawmakers, Thomas anticipated the list
would include "about a handful" of Democratic senators.
Follow us on Twitter. 
Follow us on Facebook.
Page 1 of 2