The votes for cloture exist. It’s just a matter of finding the time on the Senate calendar, where DADT repeal competes with the START treaty and a host of other bills. The wrangling over the omnibus or some other government funding measure will loom large as well.

Harry Reid spoke about votes expected in the remainder of the lame duck session. He cited START, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the DREAM Act, the 9-11 health care bill and possibly votes on judicial nominations if an agreement wasn’t reached to move them in a block. As for when, he simply committed to votes on those issues “before this Congress ends,” not before Christmas.

The House passage of the standalone bill that would effect a legislative repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell leads to the worst words in the English language: “The bill now moves to the Senate.” But there’s some reason for optimism. It sure looks like the votes are there to get this done. But that doesn’t always mean everything in the Senate.

Next year, at the beginning of the next Congress, the Senate has the opportunity to change its rules by a majority vote. Tom Udall has been pushing this all year; he calls it “the Constitutional option.” Udall would ask for a ruling from the chair, probably Joe Biden, to make a ruling on the ability of the Senate to change the rules. If Republicans object, Democrats will move to table their objection, and they only need 51 votes to uphold it. After that, the Senate can rewrite the rules.

Some old-line Democrats have been wary of this approach, but you get the sense that they are completely fed up with how the Senate operates. So they have set a date – January 5 – to attempt to change the rules.

“Senior Democrats” are urging Lieberman to run again. I mean, what’s not to love?

The Brennan Center for Justice is out today with a report on the abuse of the filibuster in the 111th Congress. It lays out pretty firmly that the Senate is simply not the body envisioned by the Founders when they created it.

Nancy Pelosi released a statement last night on the failure of the defense authorization bill, which included a legislative repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She also said that she would work to pass a standalone legislative repeal by the end of the legislative session. The President endorsed the move as well, urging the Senate to revisit repeal in the lame duck session.

Senate leadership has planned a vote on a free-standing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell legislative repeal, unencumbered by the defense authorization bill, to come to the floor sometime in the lame duck session, perhaps next week. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins are co-sponsoring the bill, which will have the same language as what was in the defense authorization bill. Harry Reid will co-sponsor as well, and they will use Rule 14 to bypass the Senate Armed Services Committee and bring it directly to the floor.

Alas, the final vote was 57-40. Reid, I’m assuming, voted no on procedural reasons, so he can reconsider it later. But I’d say DADT repeal is dead for the year.

Let’s recap what turned out to be a busy Wednesday in Congress, particularly in the House.