The United States Senate has rejected a defense spending bill that included amnesty for some illegal aliens and a repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The final vote was 56-43. Sixty votes are required for cloture.

Update: How did we get to 43 “nay” votes when there are only 41 Republicans, all of whom held together? Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both Democrats from Arkansas, joined with Republicans to defeat the measure.

Note to Harry Reid: Offer a clean, bipartisan defense spending bill. Then you can bring up individual, controversial provisions separately. Tacking them onto defense spending is atrocious and low even for you.