Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
(CNN) – One of the Senate’s most outspoken proponents of repealing the military’s policy barring gay men and lesbians from serving openly said Wednesday that he has more than enough votes to roll back the Clinton-era policy even in the face of a filibuster.
Related: House passes 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal
And, sounding a note of the harsh political realities as Republicans prepare to take over the majority in the House and increase their numbers in the Senate, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, also said that repeal of the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” policy should be considered before the New START agreement on nuclear arms reduction because if repeal legislation is not passed now, it stands no chance of passage in the upcoming 112th Congress.
On Wednesday evening, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine became the fourth Republican senator to publicly declare her support for a repeal. With Snowe’s backing, supporters of a repeal appeared to have 61 votes, one vote more than the 60-vote threshold necessary in the Senate for putting an end to a filibuster and allowing a vote.
In an interview that aired Wednesday night on Anderson Cooper 360°, Lieberman said he believes there are actually 62 votes in favor of a repeal.
“We’ve got 61 votes,” the independent senator told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I’ve been saying this. People thought I was puffing, but I knew I had those votes, and I know I’ve got at least one more Republican who will come with me. In the Senate, you don’t need 51, you need 60. We’ve now got 61, and I believe 62.”
Later in the interview, Lieberman also told Cooper that he thought the remainder of the lame-duck session presented the best opportunity for a repeal to be passed.
Related: Senate votes to take up START pact
“I really believe . . . this is the next most important and urgent thing to do” after passage of a bill extending the Bush tax cuts and a spending bill necessary to keep the government functioning, Lieberman said. “I think it’s more important than passing the START treaty right now which can be done in January or February.”
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Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
Editor's note: To watch Sen. Lieberman discuss "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" click here.
(CNN) – A longtime personal friend and political ally of Sen. John McCain implied Thursday that the former GOP presidential nominee is moving the goalposts when it comes to his support for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
McCain’s past comments suggested he might support repeal of the federal law that prevents gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military if a repeal was supported by military leadership. But the Arizona Republican has recently taken issue with results of a Pentagon survey of troops that supports a repeal and with the positions of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, both of whom also support a repeal.
Asked about McCain’s position, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, said in an interview that airs Thursday night on Anderson Cooper 360° that he disagrees with his longtime friend who, he said, appears to be changing his standards for supporting a repeal of the controversial law.
“John is my good friend,” Lieberman told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “but I disagree with him on this. The tapes you’ve played [of McCain’s past and recent comments] suggest changing standards here.”
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Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
(CNN) – Fresh off a victory Tuesday in her hotly contested and closely watched re-election bid, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, refused to identify specific cuts to the federal budget while, at the same time, criticizing what she called “over-the-top” spending for an upcoming presidential trip.
When asked in an interview that aired Wednesday on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° whether she would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Bachmann slammed the White House for the costs of President Obama’s forthcoming trip to India.
The Minnesota Republican called the trip’s costs “over-the-top.”
She added, “We have never seen this sort of an entourage going with the president before. And I think this is an example the massive overspending that we’ve seen – not only just in the last 2 years, really in the last four.”
Pressed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about whether she would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, Bachmann said those entitlement programs need to be given a closer look.
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Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
(CNN) - One of the key aspects to gaining control of the fast-moving cholera outbreak in Haiti is the simplest of human necessities, actor and activist Sean Penn told CNN's "AC360°."
People must stop using contaminated water, he said, noting that they will only do that if clean water is provided.
"So, whether that's through filtration systems or trucked in water, this is going to be the essential element - water, water, water," Penn said in an interview that aired Monday.
Penn, a co-founder of Haitian relief organization J/P HRO, visited Haiti over the weekend - days after news broke about the cholera outbreak in the earthquake-ravaged country.
"It's bad," Penn said of the conditions in the Caribbean nation, devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12 which killed nearly a quarter million people, left more than 1.6 million people homeless and destroyed homes, commercial buildings and basic infrastructure.
And the cholera outbreak has made a bad situation worse, he said.
Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
(CNN) – Actor and activist Sean Penn says one of the key aspects to gaining control of the fast-moving cholera outbreak in Haiti is the simplest of human necessities.
Related: Health organizations worry that Haiti's cholera outbreak could spread
“One of the things that people have to understand,” Penn tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “ - they say, well, don’t use the water; the water is contaminated. The only way that people will pay attention to that is if clean water is provided. So, whether that’s through filtration systems or trucked in water, this is going to be the essential element – water, water, water.”
Penn, a co-founder of Haitian relief organization J/P HRO, visited Haiti over the weekend, just days after news broke about the cholera outbreak in the earthquake-ravaged country.
“It’s bad,” Penn says of the conditions in the Caribbean nation, devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12. Nearly a quarter million people died and more than 1.6 million were left homeless as tens of thousands of homes and commercial buildings, as well as basic infrastructure, were destroyed.
“What we know about it at this point,” Penn says of the outbreak, “is that it is affecting a very regional area, in particular the epicenter of it, but it’s spreading very fast.”
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Martina Stewart
AC360° Digital Producer
Editor’s Note: Watch Anderson's interview with Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly.
(CNN) – Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle will soon receive a personal invitation to visit Dearborn, Michigan – and a bit of the history lesson in the process.
Last week at a rally of Tea Party movement supporters, Angle said Dearborn and Frankford, Texas are subject to Sharia, or Islamic law.
“We're talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe isn't a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it,” Angle said according to audio of the rally obtained by the Washington Post. “My thoughts are these. First of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas, are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don't know how that happened in the United States.”
In a letter sent to Angle Monday, Dearborn Mayor John O’Reilly, Jr. fired back at the Nevada Republican.
Read O'Reilly's letter to Angle
“I am deeply distressed that you have been misled about our community and the way that we conduct our affairs,” O’Reilly writes.
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