Senator Lieberman INtroduces Bill to Repeal DADT

[Faeelin]

I'm confused. In what other capacity would the Joint Chief have testified before the Senate?

I dunno - you tell me.

- WASHINGTON — The nation's top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time.
"No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As a murmur swept through a hearing room packed with gay rights leaders, Admiral Mullen said it was his personal belief that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

He is the first sitting chairman of the Joint Chiefs to support a repeal of the policy, and his forceful expression of his views seemed to catch not only gay rights leaders but also Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee's chairman, by surprise.

Mr. Levin, who has long supported ending the law, told Admiral Mullen that his testimony was "eloquent" and praised him for leading on the issue.

In 1993, Gen. Colin L. Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time, opposed allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly but supported a compromise, which was the "don't ask, don't tell" bill passed by Congress. Under the policy, gay men and lesbians may serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.

In contrast to Admiral Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was more cautious, even as he acknowledged that the question was not whether the law would be repealed but how the Pentagon might best prepare for the change.

Early in his testimony, Mr. Gates made clear that he was acting at the behest of President Obama, who reaffirmed his opposition to the existing law in his State of the Union address last week. Mr. Gates then threw the final decision back to the legislative branch.

"We have received our orders from the commander in chief, and we are moving out accordingly," Mr. Gates told the committee. "However, we can also take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress."

Any change in the policy would not come any time soon, the two officials made clear. Both Admiral Mullen and Mr. Gates told the committee that there would be a Pentagon review, taking up to a year, to study how to implement any change before they expected Congress to act on a repeal.

Passage of repeal is far from assured, judging from the negative reaction from some Republicans on the committee, most notably Senator John McCain of Arizona, who pronounced himself "deeply disappointed" in Mr. Gates.

Mr. McCain said Mr. Gates's testimony was "clearly biased" because of his not-if-but-when comments. He added that while the law was not perfect, its repeal was too much to ask of a military that is already under stress fighting two wars.

Gay rights leaders pointed soon afterward to comments Mr. McCain made in 2006 on "Hardball" on MSNBC about his willingness to change the policy if Pentagon leaders called for repeal. "The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it,' " he said then.

To explain the apparent discrepancy, Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said that the senator thought Admiral Mullen was speaking personally, not on behalf of the Joint Chiefs, and that once a Pentagon review was complete, Mr. McCain would listen to military leaders as a whole.

To lead the review, Mr. Gates appointed a civilian and a military officer: Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon's top legal counsel, and Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States Army in Europe.

In the interim, Mr. Gates announced that the military was moving toward enforcing the existing policy "in a fairer manner" — a reference to the possibility that the Pentagon would no longer take action to discharge service members whose sexual orientation is revealed by third parties or jilted partners, one of the most onerous aspects of the law.

Mr. Gates said that he had asked the Pentagon to make a recommendation on the matter within 45 days, but that "we believe that we have a degree of latitude within the existing law to change our internal procedures in a manner that is more appropriate and fair to our men and women in uniform."

Mr. Levin said he was considering introducing an amendment to this year's defense authorization bill that would call for a moratorium on discharges under the existing law.

Mr. Gates said the review would examine changes that might have to be made to Pentagon policies on benefits, base housing, fraternization and misconduct, and would also study the potential effect on unit cohesion, recruiting and retention.

For further information, Mr. Gates said he would ask the RAND Corporation to update a 1993 study on the effects of allowing openly gay men and lesbians to serve. That study concluded they could do so if the policy was given strong support from the military's senior leaders.

On one thing, Mr. Gates, Admiral Mullen and Republicans on the committee agreed: many gay men and lesbians are serving honorably and effectively in the military today, despite a policy that has led to more than 13,000 discharges, including those of much-needed Arabic translators.

"I have served with homosexuals since 1968," Admiral Mullen told the committee. He added, "Everybody in the military has, and we understand that."

Gay rights groups embraced the comments from Admiral Mullen and Mr. Gates, even as they criticized the Pentagon review as moving too slowly.

Polls now show that a majority of Americans support openly gay service — a majority did not in 1993 — but there have been no recent, broad surveys of the 1.4 million active-duty personnel.

General Ham, an Iraq veteran, is unusual among top military officers for speaking out about his struggles with post-traumatic stress after witnessing the devastation when a suicide bomber blew up a mess tent on an American base near Mosul, killing 22 people, including 14 United States service members. Mr. Johnson, a former assistant United States attorney, previously worked for the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

So in essence he was called to testify as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and McCain is saying that it's not him testifying as the chairman, but in his personal capacity.

[Martinus]

Marti isn't particularly flamboyant although it is obvious when you meet him.

Is it obvious I am not flamboyant or is it obvious I'm a homo despite not being flamboyant?

[Berkut]

Marti isn't particularly flamboyant although it is obvious when you meet him.

Is it obvious I am not flamboyant or is it obvious I'm a homo despite not being flamboyant?

Yes.

[Ed Anger]

Marti isn't particularly flamboyant although it is obvious when you meet him.

Is it obvious I am not flamboyant or is it obvious I'm a homo despite not being flamboyant?

Right.

[katmai]

WASHINGTON – The Army's top leaders say they would oppose any legislation to force the Army to temporarily cease dismissals under its "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays in the military while a broader Pentagon assessment is being done.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told a Senate panel Tuesday that an immediate moratorium on firings, as some lawmakers and gay rights' groups want, would "complicate the whole process." He said he has "serious concerns" about the impact of overturning the law and wants to ensure a repeal won't affect the force's ability to fight.

Army Secretary John McHugh, a former congressional Republican, agreed. He said his preference would be to wait until the Pentagon has a chance to finish its review.

[Martinus]

Gay military rights advocate Lt. Dan Choi has been called back into drill duty, he told The Advocate in a phone interview Tuesday. Photographer Jeff Sheng, who recently turned his lens on active gay and lesbian service members for a book about "don't ask, don't tell," originally reported the news on Bilerico.com.

Choi was scheduled to appear at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change conference over the weekend but instead rejoined his unit. Choi said his commander called him personally, asking him to return.

Choi told The Advocate that he felt welcomed back by his fellow guardsmen in his infantry unit.

"Initially, I sensed a feeling of territorialism," he said. "They were like, 'That's right, he came back to us!'"

Even though Choi faced an Army National Guard committee in June — the board recommended he be discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" — his commanding officer was highly supportive of the Arabic translator and West Point graduate.

"The paperwork has been floating around in the Pentagon very slowly," Choi said. "Usually people wait six or seven days for their discharge. Meanwhile I'm waiting for months to hear back."

Since his hearing in June, Choi hasn't been able to perform drills with his unit — he said he's been substituting by doing those routines on the side. He has not been discharged, however. Now that he is back, he has been spending time "shooting rifles and doing all of the regular drill exercises."

"It felt good to just put away a lot of the past year," he said, also comparing his return to that of a Thanksgiving gathering. "Obviously there were soldiers following everything I was doing, or there were others who didn't have a clue."

[Ed Anger]

His guard unit needed decorating tips for the barracks.

[sbr]

Following news that Sarah Palin will campaign for him in Arizona, Senator John McCain has opened a significant lead in the Republican Primary campaign.

There's something just...backwards about that.

There's something deeply wrong about that.  Also J. D. Hayward is a dick.

He was a local TV sports guy when I lived in Arizona in the late 80's early 90's.  I laughed out loud when I heard he was elected to Congress.

[sbr]

So in essence he was called to testify as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and McCain is saying that it's not him testifying as the chairman, but in his personal capacity.

Though he did make it clear in the third sentence that he was giving his own personal opinion, maybe that is where the confusion comes in.

[Barrister]

So in essence he was called to testify as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and McCain is saying that it's not him testifying as the chairman, but in his personal capacity.

Well except that the article says that it was Mullen who specified that he was only speaking personally.

[grumbler]

So in essence he was called to testify as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and McCain is saying that it's not him testifying as the chairman, but in his personal capacity.

Though he did make it clear in the third sentence that he was giving his own personal opinion, maybe that is where the confusion comes in.

No, I think the confusion comes in when people like McCain's staffer turn his statement of

Admiral Mullen said it was his personal belief that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do"

into an equivocation that it was his professional opinion that the policy should be overturned.  He has a professional opinion, which is informed (at least in part) by his personal beliefs.  They are not the same thing, though.

One can have a personal belief that all abortions are tragic, for instance, without having the opinion that all abortions should be outlawed.

[grumbler]

So in essence he was called to testify as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and McCain is saying that it's not him testifying as the chairman, but in his personal capacity.

Well except that the article says that it was Mullen who specified that he was only speaking personally.

I disagree. He may have spoken personally but I don't see anywhere that he said he was only speaking personally.  That's actually an important distinction.  Your conclusion is not excluded, but it would seem counter-intuitive that the CJCS would testify only personally.