committee or subcommittee hearings over those 9 1/2 months, enough debate on that, they still have to vote on a nuclear arms reduction treaty with the russians, this new tax deal that president obama and the republicans seem to have cooked up, and actually funding the government for the rest of the year. >> ed, does president obama have a hand in all this? because he basically told the senate, look. you know, don't move on this until the pentagon survey is done. he knew that wouldn't be done until december 1st, he knew the midterms were going to be incredibly contentious. did he set this up to fail or is this just short sighted? >> more toerimportant, he can s it. he can order the justice department not to prosecute, he can order the secretary of defense not to be thrown out of the military, even if they say they're gay or what have you, it's irrelevant. >> alex, where do you pin your hopes next? is it on the courts? is it on the stand-alone bill that lieberman and collins are talking about? >> in the immediate future the stand alone is the best option. that's what we called for