Advocate: View From Washington: The DADT Deal

The word on the Hill is that, as of last weekend (i.e. before the new compromise), Levin had 14 of the 15 votes needed to pass a repeal measure in his committee. And with the potential abstention of one senator, 14 would have been enough. (That count continues to stand at 14 as of 7 p.m. Eastern Tuesday.)

Discussions around what that repeal measure would include were ongoing as Levin continued to lobby his colleagues. But a couple concessions designed to pacify Gates were being considered: allowing the Pentagon to complete its study before implementation proceeded and potentially requiring a stamp of approval (e.g. a certification letter) from military leadership and/or the president.

But by the time repeal advocates were invited to the White House on Monday morning to be briefed on a new compromise, a third concession had been added. There would be no nondiscrimination mandate. In other words, even after the law is repealed, it will not be replaced at any point with a policy that explicitly states gays and lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the military.

It’s not clear exactly when or why that provision was added, but now that all three concessions are included in the compromise, in my eyes, it’s the most problematic. Some activists are understandably concerned that the first two concessions give the Pentagon virtually unfettered control over timing that could lead to a lot of foot-dragging. But at the very least, a nondiscrimination mandate would have guaranteed the outcome. With the current proposal, we not only have no idea when we’ll arrive, we don’t even know what the destination is....