The CNN/YouTube debates sure were straight last night, huh? We had to wade through immigration, Iraq and the economy before we got our ‘mo moment.
For those of you who came and went before the blessed event, we’ll fill you in: homosexual and Retired Brigadier General Keith Kerr inquired:
I’m a retired brigadier general with 43 years of service. And I’m a graduate of the Special Forces Officer Course, the Commanding General Staff Course and the Army War College. And I’m an openly gay man.
I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.
Well said, if you ask us.
We break the candidates down, after the jump.
Hunter’s Holy Militaristic Mission: Congressman Duncan Hunter might as well have called for God’s army! The Congressman from California first offered his obligatory “thank you” before telling Kerr that we need Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell because Army folk are “conservatives”. To introduce a queer, then, would disrupt “unit cohesion,” as Colin Powell claimed.
How about we take this to the next level?
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…Most kids who leave that breakfast table and go out and serve in the military and make that corporate decision with their family, most of them are conservatives.
They have conservative values, and they have Judeo-Christian values. To force those people to work in a small tight unit with somebody who is openly homosexual goes against what they believe to be their principles, and it is their principles, is I think a disservice to them.
So, basically, Hunter enjoys ignorant hillbillies who refuse progress. Perfect for Iraq! Oh, and that fixed “Judeo-Christian” thing – not gonna fly in the Middle East. Just a note.
Huckabee Likes A Military Uniform: Moderator Anderson Cooper didn’t miss a beat after Hunter’s insane assertion. The handsome newsman tossed the Don’t Ask question over to Mike Huckabee, who likes his military homogenous:
The Uniform Code of Military Justice is probably the best rule, and it has to do with conduct. People have a right to have whatever feelings, whatever attitudes they wish, but when their conduct could put at risk the morale, or put at risk even the cohesion that Duncan Hunter spoke of, I think that’s what is at issue. And that’s why our policy is what it is.
Note that Huckabee provides no proof that homos damage morale. He leaves it uniformly hypothetical, which, ultimately, negates his political assertion.
Romney’s A Fucking Pussy: Ah, here’s where it gets interesting. Cooper got all sorts of tenacious with former Massachusetts and forever flip-flopper Mitt Romney. The gray-haired anchor whipped out his steel trap memory and reminded Romney of his 1994 Senatorial pledge: “…You said in 1994 [while campaigning] that you looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve, and I quote, “openly and honestly in our nation’s military.” Do you stand by that?” The short answer? He doesn’t. The long answer? Here’s the entire exchange:
COOPER: Governor Romney, you said in 1994 that you looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve, and I quote, “openly and honestly in our nation’s military.” Do you stand by that?
ROMNEY: This isn’t that time. This is not that time. We’re in the middle of a war. The people who have…
COOPER: Do you look forward to that time, though, one day?
ROMNEY: I’m going to listen to the people who run the military to see what the circumstances are like. And my view is that, at this stage, this is not the time for us to make that kind of…
COOPER: Is that a change in your position…
ROMNEY: Yes, I didn’t think it would work. I didn’t think “don’t ask/don’t tell” would work. That was my — I didn’t think that would work. I thought that was a policy, when I heard about it, I laughed. I said that doesn’t make any sense to me.
ROMNEY: And you know what? It’s been there now for, what, 15 years? It seems to have worked.
COOPER: So, just so I’m clear, at this point, do you still look forward to a day when gays can serve openly in the military or no longer?
ROMNEY: I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say.
The audience then booed. And so did we, albeit for entirely different reasons.
With regard to Romney’s impotent reply: we’d like to remind everyone that a 2006 poll reported that 73% of military personnel would embrace queer comrades. A potential president should know that already.
McCain’s Brain Fried: John McCain also ignored the previously mentioned evidence. Like Hunter, the one-time POW thanked Kerr for his service, but then proceeded to praise DADT. Apparently his pals General Petraeus and General Odierno approve:
…I talk to our military leaders, beginning with our joint chiefs of staff and the leaders in the field, such as General Petraeus and General Odierno and others who are designated leaders with the responsibility of the safety of the men and women under their command and their security and protect them as best they can.
Almost unanimously, they tell me that this present policy is working, that we have the best military in history, that we have the bravest, most professional, best prepared, and that this policy ought to be continued because it’s working.
Bullshit. We don’t have the best army in history. That was Sparta. We may have the most technology and money, but that doesn’t mean we’re the bravest, best prepared or most professional. If we were, we wouldn’t be stuck in Iraq.
cjc
The “being stuck in Iraq” part of this is not the military’s fault: it’s the fault of its civilian leadership who raise great platitudes about how brave and professional our service members are, but then think they can’t handle serving next to gay people. I think they can; it’s just the civvy leadership that can’t.
beefy
i love how each of these idiot candidates thanks him for his service. if someone had outed him, he would not have been able to have a military career like he did. these douches seem to miss that point!!
it’s a ‘disservice’ for a christian to work aside an open gay, but not a ‘disservice’ when these christians (not all, but some) openly bash gays. hmm- i see how that works!!
KC
most of the candidates sounded like crackpots. i have to say though out of all of them Huck seems to be the only one that would not gay bash. the rest are status quo.
hells kitchen guy
I think I’m in love iwth Gen. Kerr. Is he married?
ProfessorVP
Kerr answered his own question when he said that he came out only after he retired. So he knew that the dumbbells that surrounded him would have made his life miserable if he had come out. That is because the homo-hating ways come from the top of the military and filter down. When asked about it, the candidates explained their phobia thusly: Colin Powell himself, and the other “experts” said you can’t have unit cohesion with a perv out in the open, so case closed.
Stef
Woever answered: Because most kidswho go into the military are conservative and have conservative values is retarded.
So the United States army, iunaffiliated wth any religious institutonl, should caterto the “ickiness” factor of Evangelical Chistians because “a lot” of the army is made up of them?
What if I inlist in the army? I don’t mind gays or lesbians one bit. Why doesn’t the army cater to my beliefs?
Oh, you want a arab lingust to help understand what this man has srapped to his chest? Sorry, Joseph over here was uncomfortable about him being gay so we sent him home so Joseph could feel more Christian.
Great idea. Forget efficiency and protection, toally focus on keeing some of your christian army people “happy”.
We can’t give you food, candy, or nudey mags, but we can take awa the gays!
Gregg
Huckabee’s answer sounds remarkably like recent comments from Hillary. Not surprising since Hillary is merely a political shell.
abelincoln
What makes me laugh at all these idiots is that it seems the xtians values are OK with servicemen abusing, harrassing, raping servicewomen but it’s just not “cool” to be gay. God forbid a gay man look at a straight man in the showers, but it’s OK for a straight man to look at a straight man in the showers to see if his dick measures up to the other guys.
I guess it’s OK though to offend the non-white members of the service by having them serve beside white supremacists and KKK members.
It’s all such a load of bullshit based on misguided religious fanatics in power. If anyone of them actually polled the population about this using questions that were not skewed in a way to get the answer they wanted then we would see a whole new view of this complete and utter bullshit.
hisurfer
My work brings me on base a lot. There are a couple of total flamers on every base. I’m open, but don’t burn quite that bright. The vast majority of soldiers I meet (marines, navy, guard) simply do not care.
There is a violent minority who are loud and ignorant – we see them downtown every Saturday night. The military could easily shut these yahoos up.
The opposition to gays serving isn’t coming from inside the military these days. It’s coming from the outside.
Nick
What about Ron Paul?! Open your mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-DdsRh_v-s
P.S. All the others are wrong.
Lisa
Please. How many of these idiots have actually served in the military? My point exactly. Then how do they know what the troops are ready for? This is the same argument that was used to keep troops racially segregated for so long. Oh, for “unit cohesion” we cant have african americans, mixing with white units, etc. Bullshit. My husband is in the Navy, and I asked him what he thought about this: “Who the fuck cares? As long as they know how to do their job, I have no problem with it.” Most of his friends on the ship feel the same way.