After weeks of remaining non-committal about the prospect of scheduling a Senate vote on the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, even in the face of growing pressure from activists, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced late today that he would call for a vote in the senate next week for the repeal of DADT as part of the defense authorization bill.

I wonder if all those phone calls from Lady Gaga’s little monsters to Harry Reid’s office had something to do with it? Hmmm? Sure is nice to have a “fierce advocate” like Gaga! (Call your senators and tell them to support a full repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. via The Washington Blade )

UPDATE: Politico reports that Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) is downplaying the legislation’s language, categorically rejecting that it amounts to a “repeal” of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“It does not repeal ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ — I wish that it did.” Levin said that the language merely allows military authorities to overturn the policy if they conclude that doing so would not be detrimental to troop morale.