Towleroad teases out an interesting nugget from an article in The Hill about next year’s legislative agenda in Congress.  The paper reported that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) isn’t certain the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will make it to the floor in 2010.  The Hill also says an unidentified Democratic senator hopes the Senate will avoid hot-button issues like DADT, immigration or climate change.

The Democrats’ top priority remains a health care reform bill, and that effort is now likely to spill over to next year.  Party leaders are betting the voters will reward them next November if President Obama signs health care legislation of some sort before the election season shifts into high gear.

From The Hill article:

Sen. Evan Bayh (D), who is running for reelection in conservative-leaning Indiana, said “jobs should be our top priority and we shouldn’t do anything that detracts from that,” echoing a sentiment of many colleagues in similar positions. 

Bayh said he recognizes that Congress should be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time and hopefully do more than one thing,” but that controversial issues will become especially difficult next year. 

Climate change legislation would be “difficult to accomplish under the best of times and doubly so when the economy is not at all good,” Bayh said.

But he did not fault his leaders for setting such an ambitious agenda, saying that “if at the end of the day [losing reelection] is your only concern, you should probably find another line of work.”