When you actually look at how much time Congress has to be here in lame duck, and the appetite to get difficult bills done, it will be very difficult to move the defense authorization bill. … When you throw in the fact that Secretary [Robert] Gates continues to say the legislation should come after the Pentagon’s working group study, which is due December 1, it’s an unbelievably narrow needle to thread with many competing legislative priorities.
—Winnie Stachelberg, the senior vice president of external affairs at the Center for American Progress, and who helped create the compromised DADT repeal that just failed to move through the Senate, on the hail mary pass that’s left [via]
CJ
My understanding is that this DADT legislation MENTIONS that the implementing will not be immediate – that it will be based on when the Secretary of Defense believes it is best to implement it. That being said, there is NO problem with passing that repeal bill at any time.
It seems like our elected officials are essentially kicking the ball down the road – indefinitely. There is always some excuse to not do this or that.
Where is there true leadership anymore?
jason
The Secretary of Defense has no intention of giving the green light to a repeal of DADT.
You have all been set up for a fail. Obama lied to you, the Secretary of Defense has stalled and wavered, and all of you have ended up with egg on your collective faces. It’s been a coordinated set-up from day one.
This is what happens under the Democrats. The Democrats are the biggest liars around. They lied, we died.
glennmcgahee
Amazing that the first thing Hillary did at the State Department was recognize the rights of gay couples if one or both happened to work in her agency. I would say most gays backed the wrong horse in the last Presidential election. With a majority in the House and Senate, there is no better time to repeal this thing. That is, unless the President never wanted to do it at all. A repeal will never happen if the Republicans are elected to a majority and rule the next 2 years. We’re screwed either way unless we demand it. Obama should not be re-elected otherwise. Remember California and Prop 8. It wasn’t the Mormons that caused its defeat contrary to what the media says. It was the message sent out through all the AA churches but nobody could say that. It would be racist.
J T
Jason, the Secretary of Defense is required to be an apolitical figure, but he identifies as Republican. You’ll recall he was W’s Secretary of Defense.
You say this is what happens under the Democrats, what, are you moving to Brazil? Because what happens under the Republicans is worse. Carter and Clinton and now Obama, these are the only presidents who really moved the ball on the field. Did they win us the game? No. It’s been one hell of a long game. Yes, we’re dying out there. But we were dying out there all these other years too, there just wasn’t always enough evidence, like the social networking sites, to confirm the gay angle, nor enough of a support system for families to turn to to admit this and come clean.
I am NOT ditching on Obama, but it was clear from the beginning that Obama was less gay-friendly than Hillary Clinton, which is why I knocked myself out helping to get her over the top in a couple of states. Frankly I was thrilled Obama chose Biden and Clinton in the roles he did, and as Glenn notes, Hillary didn’t fail us in the capacity she was able. I’d have a little more faith in the process. DADT was an enormous let-down, I remember the hope that day Melissa Etheridge played at a celebratory thing on the mall. But DADT was a step forward, and it was always intended as a step, as in one of many. Again, where the “Democrat” bashing doesn’t really fit, because I’m guessing if we had Al Gore instead of George W. Bush, we not only would have taken that step, we’d have taken other necessary steps here, avoided tragic missteps there. Your memory is short or your perspective narrow, because “Bush lied, we died” was the popular phrase for the unnecessary dead in Iraq, and there was a few sayings about Reagan in the first decade of AIDS. Have whatever ideology you want, whatever idealism you want, just don’t do it at the expense of the best thing we’ve ever had going for us. Demand more? Damn right. Go back to Republicans, or further to Tea Partiers? Uh, that’s not the solution to what ails you, and for most voters, there’s no other choice.
What we need to do, however, is let it be known:
IF DON’T ASK DON’T TELL FAILS TO BE OVERTURNED, THEN WE DEMAND PROSECUTION AND REMOVAL OF THE STRAIGHTS WHO ASK, NOT JUST FOR THE GAYS THEY ROOT OUT! There’s two sides to that coin, and if they think this law is going to stay on the books, they’re going to have to be prepared to enforce the other half of the equation too.
the crustybastard
Iggy Pop in pearls?