Don't Tell... Three years ago, addressing a group of students at Iowa
State University he said, "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." That sounds
reasonable enough, right? Well, "that day" came yesterday. Secretary
of Defense Gates and Adm Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs Chairman both
testified in congress saying that it is time to do away with the
discriminatory policy. Admiral Mullen said during the testimony that
it is, "the right thing to do" and that he was personally troubled by
the armed services forcing service members to "lie about who they are
in order to defend their fellow citizens."
So how did the Maverick react? He was "disappointed" at the testimony
of both Admiral gates and Secretary Gates and went on to say, "At this
moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be
seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," and went on
to say that the policy is "imperfect but effective."
So, my questions are piling up:
Is this a reversal of his prior position? If so, it is simply because
it's being presented by a Democratic administration and he's going to
facing a more conservative primary opponent back home? Was he secretly
hoping that our military leaders would never call for an end to the
policy?
All of that is secondary though. I am waiting (in vain, I know) for
someone in the media to call him out on this position switch. If this
were John Kerry or Al Gore or any other former Democratic presidential
front-runner capitulating on a position like this, Rush Limbaugh,
Michael Steele and any number of vocal GOP legislators would be in
front of the cameras talking about how (to paraphrase) "It's a good
thing that we didn't elect this wishy-washy, waffling, flip-flopper as
president; this is just further illustrates that he is unfit to lead
this great nation of ours."
...I'm just sayin'.
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