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Senate Holds Votes on 2 Key Issues; On A Mission to Calm Tensions; Snow & Ice in Parts of U.S.; Shopping Surveillance to Boost Sales; Some Republicans Split Over Tax Cut Extension; DREAM Act Fails; Senate Clears Way for Final Vote on Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
Aired December 18, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: So take a look now at some of the stories making headlines. The Senate heading toward an expected vote on "don't ask don't tell", a repeal. Well, this is the live picture right now, you see the Senate Majority Leader Harry there speaking at the time being.
They're actually taking up the DREAM Act first, but they're talking about today as well we could see the repeal of "don't ask don't tell", which, of course, bans gays from serving openly in the military.
We are live there in Washington. We will have a report for you coming up in just a moment.
Also, winter. Did you know that winter is not here yet? Still three days away. Is that what that looks like? Winter is three days away. Not so much, ice and snow in some parts of the U.S. West Coast is having an issue or two, tough going for travelers in the Sierra Nevada.
Our Reynolds Wolf is standing by. He'll give you the very latest.
Also, getting close to the holidays; one picture that you will see over and over for the next week are these scenes that will play out in airports across the country. So many of our fighting men and women will make it home in time for the holidays. We will show you some of those homecomings.
But I do want to get back to Washington, D.C. where the Senate is holding a crucial vote today on the Pentagon's controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Lawmakers are deciding whether or not to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
Also a vote being held -- we're expecting that at any moment. I -- I shouldn't say that. Let me bring in our -- our Brianna Keilar.
Brianna, we've been waiting on this vote on the DREAM Act. So you give me the update. Have they actually gone through or are moving forward with this procedural vote?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. But you're going to see this in just a moment. Right now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is speaking on the floor, about the DREAM Act, about the vote to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Or really these are key procedural votes to do this. I shouldn't say that either of these votes would actually pass these bills, but these are big deals, because there's a huge vote threshold here, 60 votes needed in the Senate.
So the idea here is that if these were to pass, then that's really the big obstacle that's been cleared. Two controversial topics here; the first one is the DREAM Act, yes, it has to do with immigration, illegal immigrants, young people who are brought here by their parents illegally and giving them a path to citizenship. That's the first vote that we're going to be seeing, and it's not expected to pass.
It's not actually that there isn't some bipartisan support. I mean, it is Democrats who support it, but there's a lot of Republicans who feel like this is kind of being crammed down their throats in the final days of this Congress and they just don't want to hop on board at this point.
After that, assuming that does fail, we would likely see a vote, a key procedural vote on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", the policy where openly gay men and women cannot serve in the U.S. military. We'll likely see a vote on that and this is going to be the moment that all of those advocate of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" a going to be considering a major victory if it passes.
There are four Republican senators who have publicly said they're on board with this, T.J. And when you do the math that actually means that Democrats can lose two up to two of their own and that this will still pass that all-important 60-vote threshold, T.J.
We're -- and again, this is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the floor right now. We're expecting that this vote should begin momentarily on the DREAM Act and then about a half hour later "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
HOLMES: So this absolutely is a big weekend. And certainly telling that they are having a Saturday session, but also these are two major and controversial pieces of legislation that have been talked about for so long.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Right.
HOLMES: We could see some kind of movement and even finality of some kind on them today. Brianna, we appreciate you. Thank you so much.
I want to turn over to the White House now. That's where our Kate Bolduan is standing by. And Kate, as the Senate does its work until their work is done, the President is going to be standing by and he's not going to be able to leave Washington in that cold and that snow you're surrounded by for a much more beautiful setting -- actually. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes a much more beautiful setting indeed, although I do love snow and I do love Washington in the wintertime, Hawaii would not be a bad alternative if -- if -- if you had the opportunity. But the White House says that just as you mentioned T.J. that the President will stay in town as long as Congress is in session.
And with the Congress' schedule being a bit in flux, so it seems are the President's vacation plans. Well, why? Well, at this point it seems a little obvious. The President wants to be in town while these -- some of his top priorities are being debated and discussed and he hopes voted on.
But also there's an element of perception that's always in play here. Which is it might not look so good if the President is off on vacation in Hawaii or really, anywhere while Congress is debating some of his top priorities as well as some of his campaign promises which include repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as well as the potential of ratifying the new START Treaty.
And in his weekly radio and Internet address, the President called new START as it's called an urgent national priority and said, quote, "It's time to get this done before Congress leaves for the holiday". Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've taken the time to get this right. The START Treaty has now been under review by the Senate for over seven months. It's gone through 18 hearings; nearly 1,000 questions have been asked and answered. Several Republican senators have come out in support of ratification.
Meanwhile, further delay comes at a cost. Every minute we drag our feet is a minute that we have no inspectors on the ground at those Russian nuclear sites.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: New START, as it's called, is the new arms control -- nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. And basically in essence what it would -- would do is it would resume inspections of nuclear arsenals between the two countries as well as limit the number of warheads that both countries would have. Very important foreign policy -- an element of the President's foreign policy as the President has said and many secretaries of state have said.
Conservative Republicans, though, T.J., have been wanting to push this off -- this vote off to the next Congress when their voting power increases. Senator Jim DeMint being one of them and he just this week had actually threatened to request that the entire treaty be read aloud word per word before they could move ahead which senators do have the power to do.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs very quickly after that came out. He issued a statement, a scathing statement saying in part that this is a new low in putting political stunts ahead of our national security. The reading aloud did not come to fruition, but we will now see how things play out as we already have. The START Treaty seems to not be on the forefront of the debate at this moment as we're talking about the DREAM Act as well as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
So we'll have to see how things play out.
HOLMES: Oh yes, don't forget about that other little thing, the START Treaty.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: Right.
HOLMES: That's right. Kate, we appreciate you as always. Thanks so much.
And also in a matter of hours New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is scheduled to meet with North Korea's top military leaders -- excuse me -- in Pyongyang. The former U.N. ambassador there unofficially, hoping to help ease tensions with South Korea. Today he had what he described as a good meeting with North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator.
Our Wolf Blitzer is the only TV correspondent traveling with Richardson. Earlier this morning we talked about by phone about some proposals the governor has presented.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM" (via telephone): They're designed T.J., mostly to see if they can restore some dialogue between North and South Korea. Some dialogue, if you will, between the North and the United States. They're -- they're aggressively seeking China's involvement. China has got enormous influence in North Korea. And they'd like China to play a much more positive role.
So far they say that that hasn't happened, but there's a whole series of steps apparently that Richardson is putting forward in his meeting he had with one of the senior foreign ministry officials on Friday. He -- the official is in charge of U.S. Affairs for North Korea, (INAUDIBLE) -- he -- he puts -- he started to put some of these proposals.
Earlier today he met with the chief nuclear negotiator Kim Gye Gwan and they elaborated. That -- those meetings are going to be continued.
Now, Sunday morning local time he's going to meet with the top military official in charge of the DMZ, and Armistice Major General Pak Lim Su (ph) and that's going to be a critically -- a critically important meeting because Richardson is aggressively pushing for some serious restraint on the part of the North Koreans.
I know they're going to be very happy that the -- the weather has delayed any South Korean military maneuvers at this point, which the North Koreans have threatened that they would retaliate if the South Koreans went forward. At least it's not happening this weekend, it's going to be delayed.
And what Richardson is trying to do is urge restraint on all sides to calm things down. Because he's pointed out repeatedly this is like a tinderbox. One miscalculation T.J., this whole situation here on the Korean peninsula -- peninsula could explode.
So he's really worried about it. And we'll see what happens but it's a -- it's a very, very sensitive moment.
HOLMES: Well, Wolf, back to those military drills it is amazing that weather is playing a part right now. The weather is going to -- you know, it's going to go away at some point. Do we know yet, what's going to happen, and is Richardson urging South Korea to not go forward with those drills once the weather does subside in the next few days or wherever it might be.
WOLF: The -- the fear is that the North Koreans would retaliate, the North Koreans have already publicly said they will retaliate if the South Koreans engage in these live player exercises around this island, Yeonpyeong . That was the islands the North Koreans shelled on back in November 23rd killing four South Koreans, two military and two civilian.
And it's -- it's in a sensitive moment because the North Koreans say they were provoked, the South Koreans deny that. And the South Koreans have been criticized back home for its South Korean government for not doing enough. Especially after the North Koreans -- they -- they knocked out this -- the South Korean warship.
The North Koreans deny that they did it, but South Koreans, the U.S., almost everybody else accuse the North Koreans of doing it back in March; 46 South Korean sailors died in that incident. And there was a big uproar in South Korea that the South Korean government wasn't responding tough enough. And -- and then after the shelling of the island they didn't respond tough enough. They fired their defense minister, they got a new defense minister in place right now.
So under domestic political pressure the South Koreans have to show some determination. And -- and there is concern -- Richardson I know is concerned that if the South Koreans go ahead with these exercises at this sensitive moment that will provoke the North Koreans, and who knows what will happen.
So they're trying to calm things down. But it's -- it's by no means easily -- easy. It's a lot easier said than done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, Richardson describes this as the most serious crisis facing the Korean peninsula since the 1953 Armistice which ended the Korean War.
I want to turn now to weather. Let's turn back to Reynolds Wolf. And some of this is severe when you're talking about feet of snow in some places.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Just give the number and go ahead and name it. We've been talking about it all morning long.
HOLMES: Eight feet of snow.
WOLF: Eight va-va-voom --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Feet of snow.
WOLF: -- feet of snow. It's hard to believe.
HOLMES: But OK, calm down, though, people.
WOLF: Yes, when -- when you give that number, I mean, to be honest, it is something that may cause the alarm to go off, especially if you happen to live in Fresno or by (INAUDIBLE) or some spot like that. You're not going to get eight feet of snow. It's going to be limited to the high Sierra Nevada. Great for skiers, bad for travelers especially those of you who might be making that trek along parts of I-80 going from Sacramento back over to Reno and all points in between.
The reason why we're seeing it, very simple, we have an area of low pressure that is just been really intensifying out towards the west. And that's going to pull off that moisture off of the pacific. And as it makes its way to the San Joaquin Valley the story there is going to be rain. Some places could see maybe five, six, seven inches of rainfall through the weekend.
And in the high Sierra Nevada of course, the snow is going to be the story there. Already, we're seeing it begin to pile up along parts of 80. Here's Carson City, of course, Reno, the trek is about right there in the Donner Summit and wind gusts in those areas could easily top 60, 70 miles an hour. If that happens you can have a lot of blowing snow and with that limited visibility.
In parts of the southeast we've got rain also. We were seeing some heavy rain along parts of 95, the I-4 Corregidor even along parts of 75. And the reason for that is pretty simple, too. We've got an area of low pressure that is just pulling right up along the Eastern Seaboard.
And I'll tell you just a few days ago this looked like it might actually become a strong nor'easter. But at this point computer models is going to bring it a little bit farther out to the Atlantic. That's certainly good news.
So New York should be spared as of right now. 36 degrees is the high for New York City; 55 in Dallas; 68 in Phoenix; 61 in San Francisco, and we'll wrap it up in Portland, you're high for the day is 44 degrees.
T.J., you're up to speed. Let's kick it back over to you. HOLMES: We do appreciate you kind sir. Reynolds thank you as always.
And Reynolds saw a lot of these scenes taking place yesterday. He was out at the airport here in Atlanta. So many troops coming home, a lot of them make their way through the Atlanta Airport, literally thousands of them. You're going to see some of those homecomings -- some of those played out live on air here even this morning. That report is coming after the break.
It's 12 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. At 15 minutes past the hour we are hearing the vote right now.
This is a procedural vote. This is live from the Senate floor. They are in session this weekend. They are in session because they have a couple of major initiatives to take up, one being "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- we could see that repealed today; the other being the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act, of course, is the one that would give a legal path -- a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children if they sign up for the military or if they're in college.
Not expected to see the votes needed to move this bill forward. This is a procedural vote right now. This is not the actual bill -- a procedural vote. They would need 60 votes here to move this forward. By most counts they're not going to have the votes they need, but still movement being made on two major measures today.
And "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is what they would take up next. Kind of the same thing, a procedural vote, they get 60 votes on that. That would move forward. Essentially would mean we'd see a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" possibly this weekend.
We have a close eye -- when we see the numbers on the DREAM Act, the vote, we will bring that to you and let you know which way it's going to go.
I want to head across country right now right now. First, a generous thank you from a man in California -- or to the state of California, I should say.
Listen to this story. Dennis Ferguson said he had to collect unemployment benefits when he lived there some 46 years ago. He used that money to pay rent, learned computer programming.
The state now in financial trouble, he figured it was time to pay the money back. He sent the state a check for $10,000 to say thank you. Why 10,000? He said it seemed like, quote, "a nice, round number".
Also we turn to the Midwest -- the icy Midwest. Getting around is pretty tricky. Oh, goodness gracious. These are the folks in Pike County, Indiana. They're slipping and falling all over the place. The kids having a good old time with it out there on the ice as they often do, turning their shoes into skates. Wow. That's unfortunate.
Also let's turn to Belle Chasse, Louisiana right now. Three little boys got an early Christmas present. This was very cool; Santa Claus there at the school for them. It wasn't really Santa Claus, it was pops.
Home from war, got there early. He actually came back early and planned it this way so he could surprise them. The kids for a moment didn't know what was going on, and then finally the whole suit came off and it's dad.
Again, it's great to see so many of these homecomings around the country this weekend. And certainly we'll see it next week leading up to Christmas.
Christmas, of course, a week away, just around the corner. Lots of us doing shopping this weekend. New technology out using security cameras giving retailers an edge. How? CNN's Mary Snow explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This scene seems pretty ordinary. A woman browsing through a shirt rack, but for retailers keeping a watchful eye, this is considered valuable information.
(on camera): You wouldn't be surprised to know there are security cameras like this one videotaping you. What you might not know is what's being done with those images. As soon as you walk through the door, your movements are going to be tracked.
KATHRYN HOWE, BVI NETWORKS: It's like getting really close without touching, right? I want to understand as much as I can without invading your space.
SNOW (voice-over): Kathryn Howe provides technology to retailers hoping to boost sales by studying shoppers' behavior. American Apparel allowed us to get a look at how it works.
HOWE: If you want to, say, all right let me bring it a little farther out and track people coming in or go to the coat display.
SNOW: Howe will look to see who goes to that coat display and for how long. Her job is to convert videos into information like this map showing the store's most trafficked areas. She also shows us how a camera captured shoppers inside a convenience store looking at a promotion sign. Images she didn't want to make public.
HOWE: I could click on each of these and I would get a little video clip that would show me exactly their behavior as they approached it.
SNOW: Armed with that information stores might move displays or change how merchandise is presented. In addition to cameras, this store attaches RFID or radio frequency tags on clothes. John Brooks with American Apparel says his store uses them to track inventory and insists they aren't followed once an item leaves the store. He sees another purpose for them in the future.
JOHN BROOKS, AMERICAN APPAREL: When somebody may go into a change room, we'll have run -- or the system will have run an algorithm that says with this particular item you're more or you're likely also be interested in these items. And the sales assistants can then move to efficiently provide those products.
SNOW: As retailers try to gain an edge on competitors, Paco Underhill, a pioneer in consumer behaviors, says there's an infinite amount of technology.
PACO UNDERHILL, AUTHOR, "WHY WE BUY: THE SCIENCE OF SHOPPING: I can put sensors on a shopping cart to track where that shopping cart goes and how long it stays for. I can key into your cell phone, and if it's turned on, be able to pinpoint where you are.
SNOW: What remains unclear, he says, is whether all this information is leading to something useful, but that's not the only question.
(on camera): How aware are consumers about how much they're being watched?
(voice-over): John Brooks says most know about security camera but has this message for consumers worried about their privacy.
BROOKS: At the end of the day, as technology is driven towards creating a more rich and efficient in-store experience, and that's our primary concern. Information outside of that is really of no interest to us, and it's unactionable in terms of our business model.
SNOW: But the use of all this technology has made privacy advocates increasingly uneasy. And as one attorney at the ACLU put it, analytics being collected are dwarfed by the information about you obtained online.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: well, a lot of top ten lists coming up at the end of every year, of course, but kind of a twist on it right now. Josh Levs has it for us. Hello again, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey there T.J. This is new. This -- what I'm going to bring you now, brings together oil, e-books and the amount of money that people need to feel happy. I'm going to explain coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 24 minutes past the hour. We want to head back to Washington, D.C. We told you the vote was taking place on the DREAM Act. We turn to Brianna Keilar. Brianna -- did this one --
Oh, we do not have our Brianna Keilar. Excuse me. She's standing by. We're going to get back to her in just a moment. But I will let you know that we have been keeping an eye on a live picture of the Senate floor right now. They are in session. They have been voting on the DREAM Act.
This is a procedural vote on the DREAM Act which, of course, is the act that would allow a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who came here as children who ended up in military service or college.
This is a procedural vote. They would need 60 votes here to keep the process going, to keep the bill moving forward. By most counts they were not going to be able to get those votes, so most believe that this would be defeated.
We will see the results. We will get the final vote tally here in just a moment and head back to our Brianna Keilar.
Also at the end of the year here, we have all these top ten lists for 2010. Josh Levs is looking at a few for us, one you might now think about.
Josh, joining us once again -- hello Josh.
LEVS: Yes. Hey there to you.
This is a very different way to look back on 2010. It's an interesting thing that the folks at Time.com. They're our partners over at "Time" magazine. They took out the top ten numbers of the year. And as they take you on a tour through these what it does is it kind of reminds us some of the highlights of what 2010 have been all about.
193 percent, that's at number 10. That's the increase in e-book sales from 2009.
Number 9: I missed this when it came out. There was a study. They're saying $75,000. There was this study that found that's the annual household income needed for happiness. And that when you go above that income apparently it doesn't make people over all happier; they're just as happy.
Number 8: $2.7 billion the worldwide take for "Avatar" at the box office.
Number 7: $1,424, the record high price for gold. What happens in the economy is that people start to look at what they believe are more solid, trustworthy commodities when they're not trusting stocks and they're not feeling good about retirement funds. This hit an all- time record in October.
Number 6: $140 million the amount that Meg Whitman spent on her own campaign -- failed campaign out in California for the gubernatorial slot there; the most ever of one person spending for his or her own campaign.
Number 5: 5.2 percent. That's the amount of rubble that was cleared in Haiti eight months after the earthquake.
And let's go pan through the rest of them here.
Number 4: $16.36. That's the amount per person donated to Pakistan after the devastating floods there in July.
The top three numbers of 2010, according to time.com, 1,951. That's the number of health care related programs that were televised by c-span. A reminder of how huge that battle was.
Number 2: 466,743. That's the number of classified documents in Iraq and Afghanistan wars that were released by WikiLeaks.
And finally here is what they're declaring to be the number one number of the year -- not a happy number there. 206 million -- that's the gallons of oil that leaked into the gulf. And you can all remember how long we were looking at that and when you measure it, according to the latest numbers that we do have, in terms of gallons, 206 million gallons that leaked in there.
This whole top ten list along with a bunch of others are really interesting. I have posted them for you at Facebook and Twitter at my pages joshlevscnn. Go ahead and take a look there and see what you think. And while you're there, you know what, weigh in and let us know what you think the big numbers are of this year that were left out.
T.J., the year is not over yet; still a little while for big news to be made. But it does seem that these top ten lists are coming out every day.
HOLMES: All right. Josh, we do appreciate you as always. Thanks so much.
LEVS: You got it.
HOLMES: We're approaching the bottom of the hour here. Coming up a little later, did you know Tiger Woods had a brother? A lot of people don't realize he has siblings. Yes. We'll explain that.
You're also going to hear a very revealing interview that I did with his brother; very revealing. We have a special coming up this weekend that you're going to want to see.
First, though, how the passage of the extension of the Bush era tax cuts has actually split some of the GOP 2012 presidential hopefuls. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We are at the bottom of the hour now. This tax cut extension, it's a done deal now. The president has signed it, but it seems to have caused a bit of a split among some Republicans.
Let me bring in our Paul Steinhauser, deputy political director.
And we say a split among some Republicans. We're talking about a very specific group of Republicans here.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We sure are. There's no official candidates yet, T.J., in the next race for the White House, but we have got some potential Republican presidential candidates, some people who may want to take on Barack Obama in 2012.
And you're right, this has really become the first big issue, I guess, in the campaign, that campaign which really hasn't even started yet. And it's tough for some of these Republicans because that new law, it does some things that Republicans love. It keeps that tax rate low for all Americans for the next two years, but at the same time, it also puts the country deeper into the red, and that's troublesome, especially for Tea Party activists and for fiscally conservative Republicans who, you know, the deficit is such a big issues.
So take a look at this. We put this little graphic together. And I apologize to some presidential hopefuls who are not on this list. But here's who is for it and against it.
You can see on the left there, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, she's very much against the new tax cut compromise. So is Mitt Romney.
T.J., let me get back to you for some breaking news.
HOLMES: If you can excuse me for one second, buddy, I'm sorry to interrupt you here. We have been watching closely what's happening on Capitol Hill with the DREAM Act. And it did go as anticipated.
Our Brianna Keilar is standing by here for us.
Brianna, again, this was kind of what people were expecting to see.
KEILAR: That's right.
We just watched this key vote for the DREAM Act, which is an immigration measure involving kids who are brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. It just failed. The vote, 55-41. And this is what we were expecting.
There were a few Democrats who voted against it, there were a few Republican who voted for it. But we had heard a lot of objections from some Republicans who just felt like this was kind of being rushed here at the end of this Congress. But this is a measure that would have provided a path to citizenship for these young people if they had come to the U.S. before turning 16 years old, if they had been here for five years, and if they were going to go on to a -- if they were going to be in college, or they were going to join the military, and really adhere to at least, the bill said, having sort of moral character.
So, again, this has failed. And the important thing to note now is that we move on to maybe even the bigger deal of the day here on this rare Saturday session here for the U.S. Senate. And that's going to be a vote on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the policy whereby men and women, gay men and women, cannot serve openly in the U.S. military.
And actually, this is Senator Joe Lieberman. I don't know, T.J., if you want to take a listen to what he's saying, but he is the co- sponsor of this bill. Maybe we should -- can we do that? Can we take a listen to what they're talking about?
HOLMES: You know what? By all means, we can do that. He's standing there. Let's listen in right now.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: -- both sides of the aisle to support this cloture motion.
The fact is that removing a form of legalized discrimination from our books, allowing people to serve our military regardless of sexual orientation, is not a liberal or conservative idea. It's not a Republican or Democratic idea. It's an American idea consistent with American values.
We've come to a point in our history, I hope, where neither race nor religion, ethnicity or gender or sexual orientation should deprive Americans of serving our countries as the patriots that they are. This measure would accomplish that result in an orderly way, to be determined by the leaders of our military when they decide that the military is ready to implement the change, repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," without negative effect on military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and military morale.
It's time to right a wrong and put the military in line with the best of American values. I thank the chair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senator from Arizona.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Today's a very sad day.
KEILAR: And T.J., let's take a listen now to Senator John McCain, an opponent of this, as he talks to the Senate floor about his opinion on this.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
MCCAIN: We don't want anything distracting. Mistakes and inattention or distractions costs Marines' lives.
I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen, and I'll tell you why. You go up to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Marines are up there with no legs -- none. We have got Marines at Walter Reed with no limbs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture.
KEILAR: So, T.J., there you heard it, a brief position there. Senator Joe Lieberman, who is obviously for this, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- or pardon me, Senator Joe Lieberman saying that he is obviously in favor of this. He's a co-sponsor of this bill, if I correct myself there.
Senator John McCain opposing this measure, saying that this is a distraction that is going to cost lives. Senator Lieberman saying that this is about righting a wrong.
What are they doing right now? This is a key procedural vote. This isn't the actual vote that would get rid of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but it's almost more important than the vote that would do that, which we will likely see tomorrow or the next day, because this is a vote that has a 60-vote threshold.
This is the biggest obstacle to repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which has been in effect now for 17 years, which says to gay servicemen and women that they cannot be openly gay as they serve in the military. This is going to be a vote that we're going to be seeing here over the next several minutes.
We are expecting that there are four, at least four Republicans -- four Republicans who have been on the record saying that they support a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Democrats have to count on their votes, or they're not going to be able to pass this.
It's possible, having those four Republicans, that Democrats can lose two of their own, and they could still move this measure forward. So we're obviously going to be keeping a close eye on this.
This is really kind of an amazing day here on Capitol Hill. You see there on the Chyron the DREAM Act failed. Now we're dealing with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." These are two very contentious social issues that the Senate is dealing with just before wrapping up business ahead of the holidays -- T.J.
HOLMES: Yes. And, Brianna, we certainly need to keep it in perspective for our viewers what they're seeing right now.
Again, you have seen a lot, folks, and we'll let you know what just happened. You're seeing on the screen that, yes, the DREAM Act has failed. And then you heard senators making comments about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
But the DREAM Act, as we have explained, is the one that would give a legal path to citizenship. It has failed the procedural vote. It is not going to go forward at this time. We don't know if it will come back sometime later in the future, but for now, it is not going to be moving forward. Now the other major thing on the plate -- and please, Brianna Keilar, you stand by, stay with me. And I know I have our Paul Steinhauser in Washington, D.C., with me right now as well.
They are moving on to a procedural vote on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a repeal of the military policy that's been in place that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. A procedural vote, yes, that Brianna just explained, but also a very important vote that will let us know if essentially this repeal will take place.
Paul Steinhauser, again, with us as well as in Washington, D.C.
Paul, let me let you chime in here if you can as well.
The political stakes that are at play here -- and you were talking to me a moment ago about Republican presidential hopefuls down the road, but still a lot of what's happening now is going to play politically. One thing, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," for this president, a promise he made during the campaign season.
STEINHAUSER: Oh, yes. Very much so. This is a bill that Democrats in Congress and the president would definitely like to see made into law. Their base very much supports this bill.
And if you look at national polls overall, T.J., a majority of Americans, most polls suggest, do support allowing gays it to serve openly in the military. But there is a lot of opposition to this on the conservative side.
Going back to the DREAM Act, which, as you said, just went down, Americans are much more divided on that. But remember, illegal immigration, border security, huge issues. Not as important as the economy, but big issues in this year's election and probably will be big issues again in 2012.
And remember, the Latino and Hispanic vote was pretty important to some Democrats winning reelection, especially in some of the western states. Even Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, who had a very tough reelection this year. So, both those issues very, very big politically -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
And again, Brianna Keilar still standing by with me.
I hope you can still hear me there, Brianna. And I hope that you are still there.
We're watching what's happening there on the floor of the Senate, and we certainly are monitoring that closely. Can you tell me, first of all, are they actually taking that vote as we speak?
KEILAR: They are. And we're watching vote by vote as this goes down, T.J.
I told you before that there were four GOP senators who had publicly said they were going to join Democrats in this effort. Well, we now know that another one, Senator Voinovich, has just cast his vote that he is also a yes. So that makes it five at the point.
Also, I want to correct myself, T.J., because I said earlier that Senator Joe Lieberman is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which obviously he isn't. He's a co-sponsor of this bill, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. And he is a co-sponsor with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican who is one of now at least five Republicans, it appears, signing on to this.
So, knowing that, just as we watch this vote by vote, we're certainly expecting now that this is going to be pushed over the threshold. There's still several minutes in this vote, but this is a key procedural hurdle that has to be met today in order to move forward with the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" so that openly gay servicemen and women can serve openly in the military.
We're going to keep watching this and se exactly how this shakes out. We're expecting it's possible that maybe, certainly at least one Democrat is going to vote against this. This is all shaking out as we speak here -- T.J.
HOLMES: Brianna, I know you're keeping up with the vote there. Again, now that we hear one more that we weren't expecting to add on, to vote for the repeal, it certainly seems like they're going to get the votes they need to move this forward. But people keep hearing us talk about these procedural votes, and people here "cloture" thrown in there as well.
Essentially, what we're talking about here, folks, this is necessary to just keep this thing going forward, but this is correct in saying that if this vote goes through, then, essentially, this means the repeal would took place when they actually do a vote officially on the actual bill coming up either tomorrow or Monday, as Brianna mentioned.
But, Brianna, even if they get past this procedural vote here and get these 16 votes, what else could derail it even after this vote? Would it have to be really something out of the ordinary to come up to derail the repeal?
KEILAR: I mean, you never want to see it's a done deal until it's a done deal, T.J. But the expectation is this is it.
I know we say this is a procedural vote, and with this one, the repeal wouldn't be, you know, n effect, and even then it would take the military some time to implement it. But this is it.
I mean, this is the last hurdle that really would need to be crossed. We wouldn't expect that anything would be derailed. We would then expect to see a vote either tomorrow or Monday.
And here's the thing. The vote that we would see tomorrow or Monday that would actually get rid of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would only require a simple majority of 51 votes. If they clear the 60-vote hurdle today, I mean, this is the common sense, that they're going to be able to move this forward over that much lower goal.
HOLMES: All right. Brianna, I'm going to let you do some head counting there for a moment and see where the vote stands right now, and I'm going to bring in Paul Steinhauser once again.
Again, the vote -- procedural vote taking place on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." If this thing goes through right now, then that essentially means that this repeal will go through at some point either this weekend or on Monday, but the law would be passed, and officially it would be repealed.
Paul, was it important for this Congress to get this done? Because Congress is going to look a whole lot different come January.
STEINHAUSER: Yes, a whole lot different. And that was one of the reasons why Democrats and the president wanted to get this done in the lame-duck session, because, yes, starting in January, the House will be in control. The Republicans will have the large majority, a pretty large majority, in the House.
And in the Senate, the Democrats will be going from 58 seats, which they currently control, their coalition, down to 53, which will make things tougher.
So there was definitely a timetable, and the clock was ticking here for the president and Democrats to get this done, and get it done now, both on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," also the START Treaty, which may happen next week. They were trying, of course, to do the DREAM Act, but that did not succeed.
HOLMES: Oh, yes. By the way, the START Treaty. We've been talking about DREAM Act and talking about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but that is another big, big measure that the president certainly wants to see taken care of.
Go ahead, Paul.
STEINHAUSER: Yes. It's like, but wait, there's more. I mean, there is just so much at issue right now, so much that this Congress is trying to get done in just a few remaining days. So it never ends -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
We're going to try to catch our breath and get a break in here. But the voting continues there on Capitol Hill.
When we come back, we might have some numbers to share with you about this vote, but they still have several members left in it.
I'm going to get a quick break in. We're right back. We'll let you know what's happening there on the Senate floor.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a crucial vote will let us know whether or not the ban on gays serving openly in the military could actually be essentially repealed this weekend. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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JOAN GOLDWASSER, KIPLINGER'S PERSONAL FINANCE: Well, everybody from, you know, the nanny, if you have one, the baby-sitter, the person who delivers your newspaper, the person who collects the trash, sort of all of those people that make life a little bit simpler.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And who you plan to keep doing business with. Goldwasser recommends tipping the dry cleaner a few extra dollars. Your hair stylist, the cost of one visit. Trash and recycling collectors, $10 to $30 each. The same for the person who delivers your newspaper.
A regular baby-sitter should receive the amount of one or two jobs. And your dog walker, what you would pay for a week's worth of work.
MEGHAN CAHILL, WASHINGTON RESIDENT: I lived in an apartment now so I don't necessarily see my postal man every day. But growing up, that's something always my family did. And getting your hair done, it's nice to give a little extra tip for the people you give business to and they consistently give you great service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if the economy has you running low on cash, you can spread some cheer without cramping your budget.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perhaps if you're a crafts person, you can make something, or --
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HOLMES: All right. We'll head back to Capitol Hill, and you see the numbers there.
Our Brianna Keilar, we'll bring her back in.
The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Brianna, a policy that's been in place for the past two decades, almost, it now looks like it's going to be repealed.
KEILAR: It is going to be repealed. This is a key procedural vote, T.J., but this is a harder mark to hit than the vote that is going to actually repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" either tomorrow, possibly on Monday.
This just passed 63-33. So even with a little bit of a margin there, you can see it was kind of close, but I think Democrats would tell you that's a somewhat comfortable margin.
The last count, it was kind of interesting, because I had told you that Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, that he had voted yes on this vote. But we also just learned that Mark Kirk of Illinois, a new senator from Illinois who took President Obama's former Senate seat, also joined those four Republicans, T.J., who said that they were going to be on board with this.
So, where do we go from here? Well, like I said, we're going to be seeing a vote tomorrow, perhaps on Monday, that is going to be the real deal, that will actually be the repeal. But it doesn't go into effect right away.
The military still has to go through a review process that would be at least 60 days before they sort of figure out exactly how they are going to implement this. But this is a policy that's been in effect for 17 years, since the Clinton administration, that said to openly -- or to gay men and women that they could not serve in the military if they were going to be -- you know, if they were out. You know, then there's a lot of people.
I understand some of them had said, T.J., that they were going to be up in the gallery watching this, some people who had to leave the military because they did come out. And they are here to watch this. This is a big day for advocates of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
HOLMES: It's a big day. And a lot of those advocates, like you mentioned, have been really putting up this fight for years and years and years. And, of course, you have people on the other side who felt the policy should stay in place, some members of the military as well.
Some military leaders saying give us some time, and how would this be rolled out? How would you implement it? But then you had other military leaders as well saying they didn't think it would be a problem in the military if you did lift the ban.
To our viewers, you see something on the screen there about a cloture vote. We want to be as clear as we can here.
This was a procedural vote, as Brianna has been so good in explaining to you throughout the morning. This is a procedural vote. But don't let that fool you.
They had to get a certain number of votes here to move toward so they could actually get to voting on the actual bill. This vote today, right now, that we just saw, essentially means that yes, in fact, the repeal will happen of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
Brianna, explain to our viewers also -- we're getting close to the end of the year. It was very important to move forward with a lot of these things, including this initiative with this Congress, because Congress is going to look different come January.
KEILAR: That's right. And that's why we're here on a Saturday.
I think a lot of people are probably out right now doing their last-minute Christmas shopping. And we're here on Capitol Hill. The Senate really doing a lot of last-minute votes, tackling today two very big issues, contentious social issues, an illegal immigration measure involving kids who are brought to the U.S. illegally which failed a procedural vote, followed by this, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a very important vote that paves the way for the repeal of this process. But, yes, this is sort of a time period where the Senate, in particular, is really working against the clock to do a number of things, not just what we're talking about today, but also to fund the federal government. Last night, they passed a measure to fund the federal government at its current level for three more days so that they can kind of sort out exactly how they're going to move forward with a slightly longer-term measure. But they are trying to accomplish a whole lot before this Congress wraps up.
And yes, the face of the Senate is going to change. Democrats retaining the majority, but there are more Republicans who are going to be here in the beginning of January. That's not lost on Democrats at all -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Brianna Keilar, thank you so much. I know your work is not done. You will continue here with reporting. But thank you so much. We appreciate you being with us throughout this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Brianna, it's been good talking to you. Thank you so much.
We are going to get a quick break in. But to our viewers who may just be stopping by to see what's happening here, this is what you need to know. A procedural vote has taken place which essentially moves forward with the repeal in the Senate of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
This essentially means that the 17-year-old policy that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military is going to go away. The repeal will take place just like President Obama wanted.
Certainly, some more things to take place as far as when it gets implemented and how it makes its way throughout the military all around the world, really. But for right now, what you need to know is that this vote essentially means "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will be repealed.
We're about six minutes to the top of the hour. We're right back.
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HOLMES: Getting close to the top of the hour. Going to take a quick break. I'm going to hand this thing over to Drew Griffin, sitting in today for Fredricka Whitfield. There'll be more coverage of what we just saw happen in the Senate, a key vote which essentially means the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is going to be repealed.
Thanks for being with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING..
Drew Griffin coming up after the break.
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