DADT: Signs of Hope, Doom

From the Advocate:


Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos made contradictory statements over the weekend regarding “don’t ask, don’t tell,” while talk of a deal that would remove the repeal provision from the Defense funding bill swirled.

Secretary Gates, making an unusual break from his consistent calls for Congress to wait on repeal until the Pentagon delivers its study in December, voiced his support for Congressional action during the lame-duck session along with his doubts for its success.

"I would like to see the repeal of ‘don't ask, don't tell’ but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are," Gates told the Associated Press Saturday, while traveling in Australia.

But Gates’s comments may be a moot point. Over the weekend, observers of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” debate began cautiously acknowledging that an effort is in the works to potentially move a stripped down version of the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act that would exclude repeal.

A person close to the process said Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is looking into a deal with Sec. Gates that would cut ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ out of the Defense bill in order to smooth its way to passage.

“Levin is making calls under the premise – we can’t afford to waste time on a controversial provision, so we’ll strip out the controversial provision and be able to get the bill on and off the floor in the available amount of time,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Levin's office did not respond to an inquiry for comment on short notice.


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If the reporter gets a source, I will take it seriously

but if we don't see at least a real attempt at an appeal it will be damn hard to convince me to do anything other than vote for Obama. I will have a lot of local races to work on and likely an attempt to amend our Constitution to forbid marriage equality which will take a lot of time.

but I've learned not to be surprised by anything.

Neither Maine Senator will dare vote for repeal after Maine got taken over by raging tea baggers. We need 5 votes we didn't have before. Maybe we will get Lincoln as she goes out the door. Maybe Manchian can be talked into it. That leaves 3. Brown, Voinovich and?

she claims she wanted the process open to other amendments. She may very well vote against cloture again, but it would pretty much destroy any remnant of credibility she has left.

but frankly I don't trust them.

The GOP doesn't want to deal with this anymore. They know it's a loser for them in the long run and they'll object while they let the lame duck congress run it through now.

Collins won't oppose it this time.