Why Obama And The Democrats Are Engaged In a Losing DADT Battle With John McCain

With Barack Obama taking a back seat — at least a farther back one than he did on health care reform — on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, it should be of little surprise that what he and Democrats Inc. are “doing” (a word I use lightly) to kill the law differs more than slightly from the strategy of gay military advocates.

Organizing For America, the Democrats’ gigantic email blast factory, is doing one thing notes Josh Gerstein:

President Barack Obama’s political outreach arm at the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, sent an e-mail Monday to Obama’s vaunted distribution list urging those concerned about the issue to call Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and tell him to drop his threatened filibuster. (In a separate e-mail, OFA urged those concerned about a planned immigration measure also facing a filibuster threat to call Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and ask him to quit it.)

While Servicemembers United, which just set up a group dinner between the Pentagon and gay soldiers’ families, is doing another:

Servicemembers United is encouraging those who back an end to “don’t ask, don’t tell” to call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to urge him to meet Republican demands that they be permitted to introduce amendments to the underlying defense authorization bill. Servicemembers United also encouraged those on its e-mail list to call five Republican senators considered most amenable to “don’t ask” repeal: Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Dick Lugar of Indiana, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and George Voinovich of Ohio.

And while on-the-fence senators like Republicans Snowe and Collins might be a lost cause going into today’s vote to end a GOP filibuster of the Defense Department’s spending bill (to which DADT’s compromised death is attached), those votes were really the best shot at securing a repeal.

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Team Obama’s focus on McCain, meanwhile, is DOA — the senator has made clear he will continue doing the exact opposite of pushing for a repeal — and is instead an easy way to drum up anger toward a Republican star going into November’s elections.

On the eve of the most important Senate vote yet on DADT, Obama and Democrats are engaged in political warmongering, knowing full well any furor over McCain’s stance on the discriminatory law is best served to mobilize voters, not let gays serve openly.

But don’t take my word for it.

Great job everybody!