Mike Almy. Victor Fehrenbach. Margaret Witt. Just a couple names of respected service members kicked out of the military after being forced out of the closet — not through their own choice, but because they were outed by jilted ex-lovers or involuntary discovery of their personal lives. But Sen. John McCain, speaking to reporters today after he succeeded in keeping Democrats from invoking cloture to force a vote on DADT’s repeal, keeps insisting “it is not the policy” of the military to actively hunt for gay soldiers and remove them. McCain, you see, “knows the military very well,” and he “doesn’t care what you say” because “I know what’s being done. … I know the military very well. They are not telling you the truth.” Senator McCain is either lying through his teeth, or the most misinformed self-professed expert on gays in the military.
Now I’m sure glad we didn’t elect this guy president — because the alternative has brought us so much closer.
RELATED:
The Harm of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Leading Double Lives, Dismissals and Making America Less Safe
reason
Queerty is the blind leading the blind, headlines like democrats bomb in pushing DADT repeal through the senate when they know full well that the debate is just getting started. It is actually more like GoProud leading the blind. How wise to start shelling the party that is trying to end DADT before the battle has even started. Passing this Defense Authorization Bill is going to require a lot of negotiation, and to give the GOP everything they want at the beginning and believe that they wont filibuster to remove DADT is moronic. Why not make them fight to get things into the bill striking a compromise that will allow us to keep DADT repeal in the bill? Oh that is what Harry Reid is doing. Also what is with all of the attacks on just John McCain? Why not also put positive pressure on the Senators in Maine and Mass that will likely be the first people to come around? Why not go after the Lugars and Coburns. The GOP is not going to leave the military unfunded, it is just a matter of time. What we don’t need is traitors turning and attacking the president and his party giving the GOP more power to derail the entire thing. Democrats are excellent at stealing defeat from the jaws of victory, they smell a little trouble and are booking the first ticket out of dodge. The republicans were boiling in hell, after a disastrous 8 years with W, and the Tea Party kicks the gates open and marches out with their party strapped to their back. When will the base wake up that stabbing are leaders in the back before they get a boot out the door of the helicopter is not going to get us anything but a disaster and something to complain about like the implementation of DADT in the 90’s. Clinton came into office gung-ho about repealing the Gay ban and the gays and the left attacked him right along side all the uniformed generals that the GOP had with them. Lets not repeat history, show a little courage, burn your white flags and load your weapons.
reason
For those that are not aware it will require 60 votes to remove DADT repeal language from the Bill. The GOP does not have the numbers to strip repeal from the Bill and if we support Reid instead of attacking him for standing strong it will remain. If we stand firm the GOP will be on a collision course with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan without financial support, they wont let that happen, the ball is in their court to fund the troops not the Dems.
A Aki
American gays should join the Canadian military, police force, or fire fighters. It is easy. They want you. It is a win win. Don’t fight for marriage fight for marriage alternatives. Check out Alternatives to Marriage Project @ http://www.unmarried.org. Don’t waste time on US military. Join the Canada military today. Canada wants as many gay solders as possible. Gay soldirs are better than straight ones in most cases.
Come to Canada! Canada loves you!
Canadian Forces Recruiting – Recrutement Forces canadiennes http://www.forces.ca/en/home/ or FRENCH/FRANCAIS
http://www.forces.ca/fr/home/
Canada may not be perfect (on gays, weed, prostitution, Qubec) but Canada is worth fighting for.
Greg
@reason: You have the faintest sliver of a point in your criticism of the headline, which implies that there was something the Dems could have done TODAY to alter the outcome of the cloture vote.
They clearly couldn’t, and I credit them for including DADT repeal in the defense authorization bill.
However, your wanting us to be all shining happy people holding hands over this extremely overdue first salvo is bunk. The DSCC has been milking me for dollars for years now and, despite my continual letters insisting that since there will never be a “perfect time” to tackle the issue of gay rights they might as well hit it now, they’ve chosen to wait ’til the eleventh hour to “get a boot out the door of the helicopter.”
And as for your wanting me to spread the blame equally among all members of the Republican Senators, that’s bullshit too. Yes, Coburn is as much to blame as the wenches from Maine and fuckwad McCain, but when has Coburn ever given a rat’s ass about me? He’s dead to me. He’s never demonstrated that he has any conscience whatsoever, so why would I complain about him?
Meanwhile, McCain is a fucking senile, pandering idiotic piece of shit. He has sung a slightly different tune in years past, but it’s an election year so he is obligated to drop to his knees and suck the dicks of the morons in his base.
Yeah, I’m bitter. I get that way when the only party I can remotely call “home” uses me as an ATM and then makes a half-hearted attempt to placate me before asking for more favors. I’m an ex-enabler of a drug user, so I am very familiar with this dynamic.
Rob
For fuck’s sake Queerty, the Obama bashing gets old after a while. Surprise surprise, he didn’t sign an executive order repealing DADT on the 21st. Surprise, he plays the game of politics instead of doing the right thing. Do you really think McCain would have fought harder for gay rights than the Democrats? At least they’re trying. I would rather have a party that does nothing than one that actively fights against our equality.
reason
@Greg: No really what I don’t understand is that you are acting like the thing is over. The battle is just beginning the repeal of DADT is in the Defense Authorization Bill so why are you attacking the party that needs all the help they can get to hold strong and say if you don’t want to pass this bill the military will not be funded. The time to start punching the person that is carrying the 2 tons of food that you need to survive for being late is not when he has it over his head is is trying to move to the finish line. They waited till the 11th hour becuase this is the time that the Defense Authorization Bill comes up and it is the only way the Dems can pass DADT repeal. The bill has only come up one other time and that was Obama’s first year in office when Health Care was hanging by a thread and the Dems had just been shoot up all summer through the town halls. Bringing the Repeal up at that time would have doomed it and likely health care reform along with it.
This is not about blaming republicans and I have never said anything about spreading blame, it is about turning up the heat up on them. Why would I be spreading blame when we have not lost, the thing is barley started, their will be a lot more votes on this bill becuase guess what if they don’t pass it the military is not going to be able to support and feed the hundreds of thousands of troops that are currently in harms way. They wont be able to pay the troops including the ones with four stars strewn across their shoulders. The senators in Maine need to be pressured becuase the road leads through them. Coburn and Lugar need to be attacked becuase they need to change their tune. Did the tea party turn the guns on the GOP during the health care debate or did they turn them on the democrats weakening the bill as much as they could. Did they not attack Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Sanders, and just about every blue dog to boot? If we could switch the tea party out for the gay community we could get this Appropriations bill passed by next week. Now is not the time to be weak and give up.
reason
@Rob: Even the part about the executive order stop loss is false. They made sure when they passed DADT that a wonky liberal wouldn’t be able to stop the discharges as stated on page 13 of this unclassified document ” http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:TM4dnTC3GlsJ:www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc%3FAD%3DADA484814%26Location%3DU2%26doc%3DGetTRDoc.pdf+sharon+alexander+stop-loss+sldf&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShrchypZpLv7oYJHI3vDkcKfic2b31SPrjl7YmnuMEgHYLs2yIvj9N290k21ZuET6J3EzK5hFWzwne5NukSj00rsE5NTbGqErSIwVEeQSy7dd0qlrxr8kIsqWdMIYMCDu0kyUvx&sig=AHIEtbSpQe5daCVFF6hAVbhzgwEmLeK50w “. It is just more fodder for liberals to attack their own president, it is like the Obama birth certificate thing, no matter how many times it is corrected people still bring it up or believe it.
reason
Those unwilling to read a primary source that I linked to above can also head over to politico right now were it says that an executive order to repeal the law passed 17 years ago would be illegal.
If Obama tired to do it anyway not only would he fail but the GOP coming to power would use it to try to impeach him for gross abuse of executive power. The GOP is actually behind this continuous misinformation that is fooling the gay community, their was a blog entry not that long ago with Bill O’reilly saying they should use an executive order and some thought that fox news suddenly fell in love with them, quite the contrary they are fooling you so you can strangle your own party for them. Deliver them up bound and gagged.
whatever
wow, queerty. you actually criticized your patron saint? how long before you start fluffing this gimp again?
ewe
I wish McCain would just go back to be the arizona pool boy he was meant to be.
Baxter
I think you might want to look up the definition of witch hunt, because I don’t think any of the three examples you gave fit it.
Sug Night
I wish they’d throw the old douche bag back in that Nam prison….he’s earned a little more thumb twisting for all the hating he’s done.
wompman
If only there were witch hunts against fat, ugly, balding, lying shitbags who happen to in the senate.
hephaestion
I spit on John McCain. The man who gave us that idiot Sarah Palin has now killed the attempt to end DADT. I SPIT on him!!
Mark Bingham is rolling over in his grave.
Steve
The Senators know very well that DADT is wrong. 70% of the American people want it repealed, and a federal Judge has already declared it unconstitutional. The only people who support the current policy are the bigots who used to wear white sheets and burn crosses.
They also know it will take 60 votes to remove the repeal from the defense authorization bill, and they don’t have 60 votes. So they are willing to filibuster the entire bill, at least for a while, in hopes of getting those votes.
But that authorization bill is a “must pass” bill. If it does not pass, the Army doesn’t get paid on October first. Our Constitution does not allow involuntary servitude, so the CIC cannot require the people to serve without pay. If the Army is not paid, there is no Army. McCain knows the cost to the country if they actually block the bill beyond Oct 1.
So they will play a game of brink. It will pass in the night on September 30. This isn’t really about DADT, anyway. It is about stirring up voters for November. The D’s want votes from the 70% who know that DADT is wrong. The R’s want votes from the people who wear white sheets and burn crosses.
tavdy79
Perhaps the second sentence of the title should include the words “yet again”? He’s a politician: deception is what they do.
On the flip-side, since some of the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan died because gays in critical positions had been drummed out of the military, the Dems now have a sterling argument for why voters who care about the military should vote against Repug senators like McCain: they’re voting in favour of retaining a law that endangers the lives of US and allied servicemen & women.
jason
McCain is repugnant. However, we’ve known he’s repugnant for a long time. Nothing new here.
Obama, however, is worse. He cheated us. Instead of being a “fierce advocate” of gay rights, he’s more a damp squib.
If the Democrats were serious about repealing DADT, they wouldn’t have introduced this legislation 6 weeks before the Congressional elections when members are nervous and unlikely to stray from the status quo. Obama and the Democrats are much, much worse than McCain and his Repugnant Party.
Cam
McCain will ALWAYS lie to try to back up his opinion. does anybody remember when he claimed that he had walked around Iraq and toured it without much protection and no armoured vehicles, and that it was perfectly safe? Well the military came out later and had to correct the story, McCain was in armoued vehicles, and had a whole contingent of military security around him the entire time.
That wasn’t a “Misspeak”, that was a flat out lie to try to back up his political position. Again, McCain will always, always, always, lie if he needs to, to back up his position.
dave
Mr McCain is now and probably has been since his Vietnam experience, a sad crazy/mad very angry damaged person. His loss when he ran for the White House humiliated him. McCain apparently has little use for the truth, he NEEDS attention and what passes for respect. Just look at his eyes when someone disagrees or confronts him with facts other than his own. He’s a study in contradictions and how power corrupts.
Lance Rockland
DAMN YOU MCCAIN! YOU CAN’T STOP GAYS FROM SERVING OUR COUNTRY!!!
SENILE BASTARD!
B
Re No 17: “If the Democrats were serious about repealing DADT, they wouldn’t have introduced this legislation 6 weeks before the Congressional elections…” But, they were not voting on the bill but on cloture – ending a filibuster. That doesn’t mean they have to vote on it immediately: most likely they’d have waited until after the election. They can still bring it up again, so the bill is not dead. The next step will probably be to hammer the Republicans on blocking a bill authorizing expenditures on defense.
Aside from that, given McCain’s performance and denial of reality in the videos QUEERTY showed, where he just spouted off with apparently no ability to listen to what others were saying, it is quite obvious that this guy would have been a complete disaster as president.
Strega
This is funny… “service men have died because gay men in key positions were booted from the military”, lol. Do any of you actually read the ignorant comments here? I’m former US Marine, when I was in there was never any looking for fags, when we found them though they were more than happy to leave the Corps. DADT is actually saving lives, gay ones.
Greg
@Strega: Thanks for the insight, fucktard. You are quite the man.
Glad to know that only hetero pieces of shit like you are capable of serving this country.