"Don't Ask" Showdown Looms in Senate This Week

President Obama's fight to let openly gay men and women serve in the U.S. military enters its political endgame this week. The Pentagon will release its report on Tuesday saying most troops don't care, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will tell the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday they're ready to lift the ban. The only bump in the road is likely to come on Friday, when the other five members of the Joint Chiefs -- some of whom have voiced opposition to the change -- will testify before the Senate panel. But if Senate and Pentagon leaders get their way, a Senate vote on lifting the 17-year old policy, a move the House took in May, could come as early as next week.  Click here.