DADT Senate Armed Services Committee Vote To Be Televised Today

Upon the demand of Sen. John McCain, today's Senate Armed Services Committee vote on the compromise DADT repeal will be televised. Wonk Room believes McCain will use his camera time to lie about the repeal and pump up his image to teabaggers back in Arizona.

Sources close to the Senate Armed Services Committee are telling me that McCain has asked Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) that the vote on DADT repeal be in “open session.” Levin agreed and has said that the vote will occur sometime after lunch. While some may interpret this as a ‘nod to transparency’, I expect McCain will use the time to grand stand on the issue and burnish his conservative credentials in light of his tough re-election race against J.D. Hayworth. Expect him to misrepresent the repeal compromise — which actually allows the Defense Department to complete its study before any repeal occurs and now has a 60-day cushion of review — and tout the letters of dissent he received yesterday from several service chiefs.

Sixteen votes are needed to move the bill out of committee and at last count, that's exactly how many Senators have agreed to support it. I'll look for a live video stream of the proceedings and will post it here just before things get rolling, which at the moment appears to be planned for around noontime.