Moments ago, by a 65-31 vote, the Senate acted to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the policy banning gays from openly serving in the military. The same six GOP senators who broke with their party during the cloture vote earlier today also voted for repeal: Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, George Voinovich, and Mark Kirk. Two more Republicans — John Ensign and Richard Burr — joined with Democrats in final passage.

Earlier this week, the House had passed the same legislation by 250-175 vote. More than 14,000 servicemembers have been dismissed because of the DADT policy.

For many Democrats, including President Obama, today’s final passage (and the signing of the bill, which will occur in the near future) marks the fulfillment of a promise that they made repeatedly. In a speech to the Human Rights Campaign in October, Obama said, “I will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That’s my commitment to you.”

And in perhaps the most memorable moment of the Netroots Nation liberal bloggers conference this past July, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was presented with Lt. Dan Choi’s graduation ring from West Point. Choi, a prominent DADT repeal advocate and Arabic-speaking linguist, was discharged from the military after he came out as gay on The Rachel Maddow Show. At the time, Reid said he would return Choi’s ring when DADT repeal is signed. “When we get it passed, you’ll take it back, right?” Reid said to Choi. “I sure will, but I’m going to hold you accountable,” Choi responded. Watch it:

Last night on the Senate floor, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) complained that it had been a “week from hell” due to having to work on “big issues.” He then grumbled that he had been too busy “stopping some bad ideas” and therefore had no time “to think about START.” Nevermind that the New START treaty was completed in April, giving Graham and his staff eight months to “think about” the treaty. Graham stated:

In conclusion to my colleagues, its been a week from hell. Its been a week where you are dealing with a lot of big issues from taxes to funding the government to special interest politics. And I’ve had some time to think about START but not a lot and its really wearing on the body…

Here we are a week before Christmas Eve and we’ve talked about a lot of stuff — some important some politics — and this is the first time I’ve really had the chance to talk about START so I’m not blaming anybody, but please don’t blame me that I’ve somehow just ignored START, because we’ve been pretty busy around here stopping some bad ideas or at least trying to.

Watch it:

Graham’s speech follows the admission of Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), indicating that the objective of the GOP is to simply obstruct on issue after issue.

On the New START treaty, Republicans demanded ample time because they wanted to offer amendments to the treaty — nevermind that for all intents and purposes treaties cannot be amended. Yet during the three days of debate, Republicans stalled and refused to bring any amendments forward, choosing instead to waste hours of floor time complaining about Senate process on other issues — all time that could have been devoted to amendments or actually discussing the treaty. It wasn’t until 4:00 pm on Friday that Republicans finally submitted an amendment for debate, which pushed the debate on START late into Friday evening.

Senate Republicans had complained that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was being “disrespectful” of Christians by possibly forcing them the hardship of working the week before Christmas. Indeed, Senator Reid has said he will provide the 6-7 days of debate on the START treaty that Republicans have demanded, which would entail working into next week. Since it is clear that the Senate will be in session for as long as is necessary, there is an easy way for Senator Graham and his colleagues to have a long and restful Christmas vacation: stop delaying and obstructing the business of the Senate.

Moments ago, in a vote of 63-33 the Senate invoked cloture on a bill to repeal the 17-year-old Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, paving the way for final passage in the coming days hours. The House passed the measure on Wednesday.

Democrats delivered eloquent speeches in support of open service. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) said, “I’m here because men and women wearing the uniform of the United States who are gay and lesbian have died for this country, because gay and lesbian men and women wearing the uniform of this country have their lives on the line right now in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places for this country.” Immediately before the vote, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who has been the strongest advocate of repeal in the Senate, urged his colleagues to repeal the ban, saying “We’ve come to a point in our history, I hope, where neither race nor religion, ethnicity, or gender, or sexual orientation should deprive Americans of serving the country as the patriots they are.”

Throughout the debate, Republicans cherry picked statistics from the Pentagon report, complained about the process of bringing the measure to the floor and relied on folksy sayings like, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to make their case for preserving the policy. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — the biggest supporter of the policy — even conceded that Democrats probably had the votes to pass the measure, before launching into a an awkward condemnation of liberal “bastions and Georgetown cocktail parties.” Watch a compilation:

Six Republicans, including Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), George Voinovich (R-OH), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) all voted for the measure. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — the only Democrat to support the Republican filibuster of the measure earlier this month — did not vote.

Today, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Fourty-one mostly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents a path to legalization by pursuing a college education or serving in the military. 55 voted in the affirmative.

Immediately before the vote failed, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took the Senate floor to tell the young DREAMers who have come to his office that they were “wasting their time” because the border hasn’t been secured:

To the DREAM Act, I have been involved in comprehensive immigration reform for many years. Senator Durbin and I have talked about how to make the DREAM Act part of comprehensive immigration reform. To those who have come to my office — you’re always welcome to come, but you’re wasting your time.

We’re not going to pass the DREAM Act or any other legalization program until we secure our borders. It will never be done as a stand-alone. It has to be part of comprehensive immigration reform.

Watch it:

What Graham didn’t mention is that though he has supported immigration reform in the past, he and his party are largely responsible for blocking it in 2010. First he held it hostage to health care reform, pitted it against climate change legislation, and then turned his back on it altogether. This summer, he declared his support for changing the 14th amendment to deny the U.S.-born children of immigrants citizenship.

Besides Graham, the Republican senators voting against the DREAM Act today included Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), John Cornyn (R-TX), and George Lemieux (R-FL) — all of whom come from Latino-heavy states and most of whom supported either the DREAM Act or comprehensive immigration reform in the past.

So-called “moderate” Republicans, including Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and George Voinovich (R-OH) also voted against the bill. They were joined by a handful of Democrats: Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT), Mark Pryor (D-AK), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Ben Nelson (D-NE), and Jon Tester (D-MT).

Only three Republicans voted in favor of the bill. After the vote, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos openly wondered how Republicans will be able to ask Latinos to vote for them after killing the DREAM Act.