Wednesday, February 02, 2011

House of Delagates Kills Marshall's National Guard DADT Bill

Amazingly, a House of Delegates committee killed religious extremist and homophobe extraordinaire Bob Marshall's lunatic bill that would have required the Virginia National Guard to retain a DADT policy. Never mind that Virginia would have had to self-fund the Guard in order to retain a DADT like policy. Only two members of the committee supported Marshall's bill, including southwest Virginia's perennial Neanderthal Del. Lacey E. Putney (I-Bedford). That's right, even the Republicans surprisingly voted against it, I sure to the fury of The Family Foundation. Tellingly, arguing in support of Marshall's religious bigotry was Herbert Titus, founding dean of Pat Robertson's CBN Law School - Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's Alma mater - and father of convicted Ponzi scheme king pin, Troy Titus who is doing 30 years in prison for his thefts from the elderly and gullible. Obviously, the elder Titus would have been better served worrying less about gays and spending more time instilling some minimal morality in his son. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:
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House committee voted Tuesday evening to effectively kill a highly controversial proposal to retain the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy for gay service members in the Virginia National Guard.
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Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) argued the Virginia National Guard should continue to bar gays and lesbians from serving openly, despite a Congressional vote to repeal the policy that has barred their open service at the national level.
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Among those speaking on Marshall's behalf were a retired Marine brigadier general who commanded a battalion in Vietnam and Herb Titus, a professor who Marshall noted several times taught Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) in law school. (Campaign flashback--Titus served as chairman of a three-member group that supervised the writing of McDonnell's thesis.)
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Only two members of the Republican-led committee supported the measure--Del. Joseph P. Johnson Jr. (D-Washington) and Del. Lacey E. Putney (I-Bedford).
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Del. Bill Janis (R-Goochland) argued that though, as a Navy veteran, he opposes the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, it would create a "management and disciplinary nightmare" for field officers if Virginia National Guard members served under different rules than the rest of the military. He noted guardsmen frequently serve in units overseas alongside members of other state guards and the U.S. military.
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Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken Cuccinelli (R) has also written that the federal government could withhold more than $200 million in funding for Virginia's National Guard if the state bucked federal policy, a concern cited by several committee members. McDonnell has said he believes Virginia should follow federal policy.

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