Rudy Giuliani called on Republicans to “ease up a little bit” on social issues like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that while he opposed ending the ban at the height of the Iraq war, “you can probably accomplish it now”:

GIULIANI: I didn’t see [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] as a big issue in this. The social issues were not in this. So maybe that’s an area where Republican can ease up a little bit and not …

BLITZER: But you support gay rights?

GIULIANI: I do.

BLITZER: So you would get rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

GIULIANI: My feeling about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was, in the middle of the height of the Iraq war, not a good time to do it. We’re not in the middle of the height of the Iraq war. Afghanistan is a different kind of thing. You could probably accomplish it now. It’s eventually going to happen and it seems to me that it gets my party out of this anti-gay, feeling that we’re being unfair to people who are gay.

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Several moderate Republicans have said they would support repealing the ban if the Pentagon’s study of the issue showed that ending the policy would not undermine unit cohesion or military readiness. Military sources that have seen a copy of the report — which is due to come out December 1 — indicate that it would not.

President Obama reiterated his support for repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell this afternoon, but stopped short of calling on Congress to repeal the ban in the lame duck session, saying only that the forthcoming Pentagon study on the issue would “give us time to act in potentially during the lame duck session”:

OBAMA: “There’s going be a review that comes out at the beginning of the month that will have a surveyed attitudes and opinions within the armed forces. I will expect that Secretary of Defense Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, will have something to say about that review. I will look at it very carefully. But that will give us time to act in potentially during the lame duck session to change this policy. Keep in mind we got a bunch of court cases that are out there as well. And something that would be very disruptive to good order and good discipline and unit cohesion is, if we got this issue bouncing around on the courts as it already has over the last several weeks, where the Pentagon and the chain of command doesn’t know at any given time what rules they’re working under. We need to provide certainty and it’s time for us to move this policy forward, and this should not be a partisan issue.

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On a conference call that followed Obama’s presser, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) — who will be responsible for bringing up repeal in the lame duck — also wouldn’t firmly commit to moving on the legislation:

REID: I had a nice conversation with the Chairman Levin today. He is anxious to move forward on that. The problem we have with a defense authorization bill is that it takes a while to get it done. If we could get some agreement from the Republicans that we could move the bill without a lot of extraneous amendments, I think it is something we can work out. Time agreements on a few amendments, that would be my goal.

Obama is correct in assuming that the final report should push conservative Democrats and Republicans to support repeal. The early leaks from the survey suggest that a majority of American troops would either not object to serving alongside openly gay troops or would raise any concerns directly with their gay peers.

A Republican-controlled House will deal another set-back to long-standing LGBT policy priorities like repealing DOMA and the Employer Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), but yesterday’s midterm elections also contained some bright spots for advocates of equality.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund announced that “at least 106 of the group’s record-breaking 164 endorsed candidates were winners as of Wednesday morning” and in the table below, I summarize some of the positive and negative results from last night as they pertain to equality issues:

Over the short term, all attention will shift to the Senate where the Democrats will try to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains an amendment to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Those votes will hopefully line up after the Pentagon’s Working Group releases its comprehensive study of the policy. Significantly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will have to bring up the measure during the body’s first week back in session to allow enough time to debate and pass the measure.