What will repeal foes say about Pentagon’s ‘don’t ask’ report?

Sen. John McCain has been hard at work discrediting the Pentagon's working study on the possible effects of letting gays serve openly, which is being released Tuesday afternoon and is expected to conclude that there is little risk to repealing "don't ask, don't tell."

At The Lookout, we'll be watching to see whether other opponents of repeal echo McCain's line and say another study is needed to definitively determine the effects on troop morale. The working study will conclude that 70 percent of surveyed troops say repealing "don't ask" will have a positive, mixed or nonexistent result on troops. The Wall Street Journal reports (as noticed by Greg Sargent) that the top Republican on the House Armed Service Committee, Buck McKeon of California, is already questioning the survey. "I'd like to know who these 70 percent are," he said. "I'm doing everything I can to defeat it."

Several Republican senators, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe of Maine, said they wanted to see the Pentagon report before they decided whether to vote for repeal, so we'll be watching their reactions as well.