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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Senate's shameful DADT repeal failure

Posted on Friday, December 10, 2010 at 08:21 AM

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You may not have followed the attempt to repeal the lamentable Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the U.S. Senate yesterday, so please allow me to supply a quick recap: it began badly and then spiraled into one of the most shameful days in American politics in decades.

Can there be any top-tier Democrat (or indeed, Republican) left in the nation who hasn't grasped the now white hot political risk of continuing to offend gay voters in this particularly clumsy fashion?

We're all sick of DADT. You, me, the gays, the Democrats, the Republicans, the American public and the estimated 66,000 active duty gay and lesbian service members still menaced by it around the world.

DADT has already been thrown out court, and in the court of public opinion, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have pleaded to end it, 75% of U.S. voters want it repealed - and yet still it keeps coming back, like Banquo's ghost, prolonging its death throes in the corridors of power.

But yesterday the repeal of DADT failed not because of any high minded last minute objections, nor for any impassioned and transformative arguments, but simply because of petty procedural objections.

There are so many lamentable aspects to this abject failure of leadership from both parties that's hard to know where to start.

Let's start at the top. President Obama insisted that the Senate should not act on DADT until the Defense Department's study was released on December 1, well into lame duck season and following the elections. So, since this was his plan, he's as responsible for yesterdays result as Harry Reid and the Republicans who voted against it.

Republicans who said they'd vote for repeal (Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown, and Dick Lugar) did not in fact vote for cloture. They really really wanted to end DADT they said, but that would have meant handing the Democrats a victory, so forget it. So they voted against an issue they supported. Principled, eh?

And now with the prospect of Senate Democrats passing repeal diminishing by the hour - and with the Republican take-over promising nothing but irresponsible gridlock - would it be too much to ask that the President find it in himself to do what the Senate apparently can't - lead?

America voted for hope and change. America voted to end discrimination and the enforced deceit that blights soldiers lives and compromises their integrity. DADT doesn't hold up in the court of law or the court of American public opinion. But once again it will fall to the courts to do the job our elected officials are incapable of.

Perhaps we shouldn't lament those activist judges after all. Unlike our Senators, at least they're actually willing to perform the roles they're paid for.

The Senate can point fingers at each other from now till January - America doesn't care and neither do I. What matters is that yesterday they failed 66,000 active duty troops. It is still not safe for those soldiers to come out.

The Democrats had the House and Senate for two years and yet they waited until yesterday to fail. The House and the Senate now owe it to these brave soldiers to stay at their own posts until this repeal is complete in a stand-alone bill.

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Monsoonman | Dec 21, 2010, 12:29 PM EST

Mayosligo: Take a look into a group called ACORN and its close ties with the international socialist union called SEIU. You will see they are very involved in voter registration and elections throughout the U.S. You will see their purple shirted personnel "working" at many voter precincts. You will also see that they have been convicted of massive voter fraud and are thought to be the reason many races get tilted towards far left candidates. See their involvement in the Minnesota senate race and how such a person as al franken ended up in the senate. He "won" by 300 votes, even though there is evidence of voter fraud.

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Mayosligo | Dec 21, 2010, 12:00 PM EST

Business, or the lack of, as usual in Washington D.C. America is cursed with baboons in Congress. My opinion, of course. I vote every election and my choices are seldom voted in. I don't understand this.

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Monsoonman | Dec 15, 2010, 08:08 PM EST

I am celebrating Festivus this year Lad, you might try it, it's not bad as far as cults go. So happy Festivus for the rest of us.

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seanomelbourne | Dec 15, 2010, 06:03 PM EST

By the way have a great holiday Hanukkah,Xmas or what ever.

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seanomelbourne | Dec 15, 2010, 06:01 PM EST

I admire your memory Mman.I have tried to contact him,but he's furious with me. I informed him he did not exist so he ignores me.

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Monsoonman | Dec 15, 2010, 09:44 AM EST

Lad, I could only under par anything at pebble after you passed on and intervened with G*d on behalf of my golf game...Remember we have a deal?

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seanomelbourne | Dec 14, 2010, 07:05 PM EST

Wikileaks a govt. conspiracy!!! We've got to neutralise the left/right loonies. what will they come up with next? Maybe Mman played 18 holes at pebble beach 10 u/par.

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Monsoonman | Dec 14, 2010, 01:36 AM EST

Lad are you gaslighting? He is the gay, pfc...As far as wmd's in Iraq being proven by wikileaks, just ask google. Now the lefty loons are claiming wikileaks is a govt. conspiracy to justify the Iraq war.

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seanomelbourne | Dec 13, 2010, 04:53 PM EST

Mman are you saying one of his given names is Gay? Where are the WMD's?

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Monsoonman | Dec 12, 2010, 10:49 PM EST

Lad, I said gay pfc bradley manning was the source of the intelligence leaks. Period. I made no giant leap about Bush & wmd's I just read the leaked intelligence in wikileaks and it showed there were wmd's in iraq.

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seanomelbourne | Dec 12, 2010, 06:21 PM EST

Monsoonman you inferred that somehow Manning's leaks to Wikileaks were connected to his sexuality.You are making a giant leap stating that the leaks justify Bush's sojourn in Iraq and the non existent WMD's.

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qwqghjqgw | Dec 11, 2010, 08:25 PM EST

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eiriamach | Dec 11, 2010, 03:38 PM EST

Siobhan716, look at the studies that were done on the effects of desegregating (ending segregation by race) the military in the 1940s--the same reactions and dire warnings by some before desegregation, but no impact on effectiveness after integration.

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eiriamach | Dec 11, 2010, 03:30 PM EST

During the past 17 years, US armed services have discharged approximately 13,000 soldiers under DADT. DADT has become an instrument of manipulation and even extortion used by a minority of bigots against gay and lesbian service people. This power to manipulate, not any "tyranny by the minority" of gays and lesbians, is a real problem. In the military, manipulation of personnel can endanger security, so there is a reason to end DADT besides the fact that it requires people to lie about who they are. There is no analogy to be drawn between keeping DADT and controlling racism in the military. seamusmoore has that wrong too. We have freedom of speech to rebuke racists for their hate speech, just as happens outside the military, just as would happen if gays and lesbians could serve openly in the military and became the target of homophobic comments. Racists get their comeuppance not by being thrown out of the service (that's reserved for gays who are outed) but by decent people reacting to the offensive drivel that pours out of the racists' mouths. I agree also with Cahir's point about the failure of the Senate to act on principle. Voting on repeal DADT was a test of principle, and too many senators flunked the test. What will it take for our legislators to put their worries about re-election aside and finally start doing their jobs?

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