many told i shouldn t say that, many is a word that s too large. but a number of republican senators told me they d like to see it pass. and they couldn t vote for it. so now they re talking about passing a continuing resolution, that s more washington jargon for basically a bill that will keep the government functioning for another couple of months and then they can have this fight all over again in the new year. how does that sound, guys? yeah, and the don t ask, don t tell issue. they have to tackle that, as well. that s what s so significant about what happened in the last 24 hours. this really clears the field for something that a lot of people did not think was going to happen. the repeal of don t ask, don t tell as we know it passed the house. now harry reid is saying that he s going to start having some votes on this over the weekend. and let s put this up on screen. because this is very significant. four republican senators have come out and said they re going to suppo
pulling the plug on grandma and all that stuff and democrats shouldn t run on what s good about it? no, they don t get to run on how bad it is, because that will be fine for their base, but they re going to vote for them anyway. average people get that this isn t so bad. republicans know very well that repealing health care is a loser for them. and they don t say it very often. they re trying to change it around to repeal and redo or something like that. their base hates it, but that s their base. that s the tea party people. that s the people who want to tell women what to do and basically become the ayatollahs of america. that s a very small part of the electorate. the big part of the electorate does not want health care repealed. they want it fixed. and it puts the republicans in a bad spot, because their base is so dogmatic and so unwilling to tolerate even from the republicans any difference of opinion. do you see the resurgence of culture war issues on the right? obviously,
obviously, the economy is the main issue for everybody in the country, but the resurgence of really extreme politics on abortion, a lot of the politics around this don t ask, don t tell issue, the religious freedom issues around muslims and islamophobia, the resurgence of these really hot-button culture war issues, how do you see those playing out in terms of election results? i think it s the last gasp of the right. i think they re incredibly energized. the republicans know that the new generation isn t going to buy any of this. if the republicans succeed in this election, it will be because young people don t vote. but they ll be back in 2012. young people in this country can t stand all this anti-gay bigotry, the anti-immigrant bigotry, the crackpot, obama s a muslim stuff. they don t like all that stuff and they re not going to vote for republicans. you know, the republicans know, the smart ones that are in charge of the party some of them are smart in charge of the party. the
look? there are some folks who are trying to filibuster this, can that be stopped? reporter: here s where we are right now, megyn. they ve got 59 votes, the democrats, but they would need 60 to fight back. harry reid is trying to get this bill to the floor now which contains the listening that would repeal language that repealed don t ask, don t tell. if he needed another republican to come along with him, it sounds like this morning he might have lost it on that point. senator susan collins out of maine, she actually agreed with him on the don t ask, don t tell issue, but she doesn t agree with the fact that he won t let any other amendments that he objects to to be debated. she went to the floor this morning saying she cannot be that 60th vote. here was her plea to her colleagues. i m going to make one final plea to my colleagues to enter into a fair time agreement that will allow full and open debate,
obviously, the economy is the main issue for everybody in the country, but the resurgence of really extreme politics on abortion, a lot of the politics around this don t ask, don t tell issue, the religious freedom issues around muslims and islamophobia, the resurgence of these really hot-button culture war issues, how do you see those playing out in terms of election results? i think it s the last gasp of the right. i think they re incredibly energized. the republicans know that the new generation isn t going to buy any of this. if the republicans succeed in this election, it will be because young people don t vote. but they ll be back in 2012. young people in this country can t stand all this anti-gay bigotry, the anti-immigrant bigotry, the crackpot, obama s a muslim stuff. they don t like all that stuff and they re not going to vote for republicans. you know, the republicans know, the smart ones that are in charge of the party some of them are smart in charge of the party. the