Sen. Carl Levin Basically Calls Obama A Pussy

Remember that it was nearly A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, in June of 2009, that Sen. Levin, who, in 1993, fought the perpetuation of the half-century+ old ban in the form of DADT, said that:

“[Ending the ban] requires presidential leadership. This cannot be addressed successfully without that kind of leadership.”

Yet, it wasn’t until November of THIS year that Obama finally got around to even talking to Levin about it.

In February of this year, “The Advocate” wrote:

Levin “has most certainly taken on the issue in spite of the administration’s equivocation-or, as one insider put it, ‘he’s got religion on this’”

In May of this year, “Talking Points Memo”:

“The final push [for ‘repeal’] came from the Hill, where key members of Congress who support ‘repeal’, like Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made it clear that they were moving forward with ‘repeal’ legislation with or without the White House’s blessing.”

From “The Huffington Post” in June:

“Pelosi said the House WEAKENED ITS REPEAL LANGUAGE TO MOLLIFY THE WHITE HOUSE. Military leaders REFUSED TO ACCEPT LANGUAGE THAT WOULD BAR DISCRIMINATION, so the clause was dropped.”

FOR PERSPECTIVE of the significance of all that, let’s review what Obama said in November of 2007:

1. “As president, I will work with Congress and place the weight of my administration behind enactment of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act [MREA], which will make nondiscrimination the official policy of the U.S. military,” …and then sat on his ass except to back Gates’ demand that the MREA be gutted.

2. “I will task the Defense Department and the senior command structure in every branch of the armed forces with developing an action plan for the implementation of a full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” ….and then backed Gates’ scheme to, instead, come up with a study that would push the vote to this “sudden death” period in the Lame Duck session of Congress.

3. “That work should have started long ago. It will start when I take office,”…but…see “sat on ass” above.

4. “America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. All that is required is leadership,”…and then refused to provide it.

In addition to Levin, Senate Majority Leader Reid virtually begged Obama LAST year to start providing that leadership.

“I therefore request that you bring to Congress your recommendations on DADT. Your leadership is greatly … needed at this time.” – letter from Reid, September 2009.

But when Dan Choi, several other gay vets, members of GetEQUAL, and I visited Reid’s office November 15th THIS YEAR, he STILL hadn’t heard from Obama.

In addition, Obama has also asserted that DADT is Constitutional when the Supremes have never ruled on it.

Obama has refused to use his legal powers under federal law 10 USC 12305 to end gay discharges in the name of national security pending repeal even as he’s said they, “weaken national security,” and despite calls from Reid, Levin, Pelosi, and multiple other members of Congress to do just that.

Obama fought to kill three legal challenges to DADT, succeeding in killing one, and is now fighting to have the two rulings against the ban overturned.

Obama Inc., is being sued by the ACLU for perpetuating the Bush policy of giving gays discharged only 50% of the pay they have coming to them.

And, today, another suit was filed, this time in the name of three more gays discharged under DADT.

So, yeah, Sen. Levin has mountains of justification for his statement.

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Dec 13, 2010 at 7:02 pm · @Reply · Flag

Ronbo is exactly right. We’re in the tenth consecutive year of Republican rule.

Dec 13, 2010 at 8:58 pm · @Reply · Flag

@Ronbo: Obama actually very brilliantly out maneuvered DADT repeal with this tax “compromise” bill. He threw something in front of the Senate and House that will keep them talking all the way to the end of the lame duck session.

I honestly do believe that Obama doesn’t actually want DADT repeal, and his actions have proven this time and time again.

What most people are starting to realize is that this country always needs a “bad guy” and they are very comfortable with it being the gays at this moment. If they were to actually give us our rights they would have to find a new “bad guy” to fight with. As long as they can keep the focus on gay rights they can continue to campaign on that platform while distracting many from causes that actually do matter.

Dec 14, 2010 at 8:52 am · @Reply · Flag