By now you’ve heard that the Senate refused to allow debate on the Defense Appropriation Bill in order to scuttle the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. Once again Republicans, aided by a couple of ConservaDems, refused to even discuss a bill in the Senate. This has been their consistent pattern since the Democrats took control. Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow had an excellent discussion of this dynamic in this segment from the Rachel Maddow show last night.

Keep in mind that a majority of the American public supports the repeal of DADT. But this Republican obstructionism isn’t influenced at all by what most people want. They intend to obstruct and cause trouble for the Democratic majority of the Senate, and that’s all they intend to do. They act the same way on every issue that comes before the Senate.