Following the orders of their Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, both Susan Collins (R-ME) and George Voinovich (R-OH) announced they will join the GOP filibuster led by John McCain (R-AZ) of the Defense Authorization bill, making today’s initial steps to repeal of Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell very precarious.

At this stage of the legislative calendar, the immigration reform and climate change bills are a zero-sum game. If immigration moves up, something else must move down, and that would be the climate bill. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman plan to drop their version of a bill next week, but they’ve already lost two key Republicans, who have split off to try and push their own scaled-back bill.