Monday, February 02, 2009

Obama Back Peddling on DADT?

I seriously want to be an avid supporter of Barack Obama now that he's in office, but I feel like I have whiplash at times from all the back and forth he's doing - not to mention needlessly seeking GOP support. The latest possible back peddling involves Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Previously, Obama administration officials made it sound like the repeal of DADT was a sure thing. Now, Obama is prattling on telling the Pentagon and gay-rights advocates that his administration will have to study the implications for national security and enlist more support in Congress before trying to overturn the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" law and allow gays to serve openly in the military. As if we don't already know what the homophobic senior bass at the Pentagon will conclude. I'm feeling once again like perhaps LGBT voters were suckered by Obama. And as for courting GOP support, WTF is wrong with Obama. These folks despise him and want him to fail. He and the Democrats need to remember who elected them and move on without the GOP and effect the changes he was voted into office to make. Here are highlights from the Boston Globe:
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They said Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that such a move would have on military discipline. Then, the president hopes to be able to make a case to members of both parties that overturning the 1993 law would be in the best interest of national security.
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At the Pentagon, officials say they have been told not to expect the administration to seek to lift the ban quickly. One senior officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said staff officers for Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been told it will be several months at the earliest - possibly not even this year - until the top brass will be formally asked to weigh in on a change in policy.
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In the meantime, longtime opponents of repealing "don't ask, don't tell" are preparing to fight any efforts to allow gays to serve openly. Elaine Donnelly, [homo obsessed ice-bitch] president of the conservative Center for Military Readiness, has testified before Congress on the issue and says that open homosexuality in the military would severely weaken discipline.
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But Nathaniel Frank, a researcher at the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara that has studied the issue, believes there is good reason for the Obama administration to move cautiously on the issue that harmed Clinton's relationship with the military. Yet Frank also said waiting too long could jeopardize the entire effort: "A delay could let opposition fester and build."
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My position is that I continue to wait for Obama to prove he did not play LGBT voters for suckers - taking our money and our votes, but then willing to throw us under the bus whenever it's expedient.

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