The House just passed a standalone bill to repeal DADT, which was expected; the bigger news is that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has now committed to voting for repeal, after she voted no last week over what she said were procedural issues.

You never know with those two Maine senators, but if Snowe keeps her commitment, that gives DADT repeal 59 of the 60 votes needed to get past the Republican filibuster. Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are the key uncommitted senators at this point.

If this is really all the farther away from repeal we are, then we are really close. Scott Brown came out in favor of repeal but then voted against the defense authorization bill. He said it was because of how it was being attached to the bill which means, in theory, he’d support repeal as a stand-alone vote. If so, he’s the 60th vote.