Gillibrand lost vote, won points
The Times Union reports:
One thing’s for sure about Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s yearlong campaign to reform the military justice system: She wasn’t in it to make political points. But she has done so anyway.
The issue is something the New York Democrat believes in passionately — that decisions on trying sexual assault cases should not be made by unit commanders. She was devastated when she came five votes short of beating a filibuster last week, and she vows the fight is not over.
“This is not an issue she picked up on cynically to try to make a name for herself,” said Norman Ornstein, political scientist and resident congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Anyone who’s talked to her knows she feels deeply about it.”
