It’s just, Jesus lady, dig your hole deeper. Speaking at Equality California’s Harvey Milk event on Friday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted DADT will be a memory by December — intimating that it will be done before summer’s over, in order to truly be a “memory” by the holiday season.
On the one hand, there’s some good news to support Pelosi’s claims:
But repeal supporters in the House could still bring up the issue during full chamber debate on the issue next week, a move gay rights groups are actively lobbying for. Currently Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Patrick Murphy’s bill for a repeal has 192 co-sponsors, and officials in his office say several other lawmakers have promised to back the measure if it comes up for a vote.
If attached to the authorization bill, a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal could put Skelton and conservative Democrats in the awkward position of either voting against troop funding or for repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” during what is expected to be a contentious election cycle.
Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee will draft their version of the authorization act next week, and committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., has long advocated using the budget bill as a vehicle for repeal.
Committee officials won’t unveil their plans, but gay rights groups anticipate it will be included after a week of internal committee debate.
On the other hand, when you truly read about how Brian Bond, Obama’s LGBT liaison, has completely dropped the ball on coordinating efforts between the White House and gay Americans and activists outside Gay Inc., it’s you realize that only a select few people (Sen. Carl Levin, Rep. Patrick Murphy) actually have any strategic plans to push forward a repeal.
Red
I honestly don’t think there are a lot of examples of the Speaker getting out and promising beyond what she’s delivered since she’s taken the gavel. She can’t control the Senate and the President, but if she says that it’ll be repealed, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the the house will move on it on that time schedule. And beyond that you can’t blame her for white house/senate slow-downs. The House has largely delivered on Democratic promises of 06/08 election, and there just aren’t a ton of examples of Pelosi overpromising.
jason
By Christmas? Whom is she kidding? By Christmas, honey, you won’t have the numbers in either House to pass the repeal. At least now, with a Democratic majority in both houses, you still can do it.
Stop kidding us, Nancy. You’re living proof that you can’t put brains on a statue.
Red
Jason,
Numbers won’t be different by Christmas. The new Congress will be sworn in in the first week of January 2011. Now, perhaps you could argue that a lame-duck Congress won’t pass repeal, but it won’t be because of a radically different composition of the House.
gaylib
Red, that’s exactly what her carefully crafted lie is based upon. She can say that she is confident that repeal will happen, of course she leaves out the part that such confidence hinges on democrats retaining large enough majorities in the house and senate, which she knows probably won’t happen. How about by Halloween, Nancy? that would be a bit more comforting.
gaylib
a lame duck congress isn’t going to touch DADT. The remaining Dems will be so shell shocked they won’t want to have anything to do with it.
San Francisco Treat
hmm… you guys look pretty clueless now.