Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Thursday he would work to help implement the repeal of the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, despite his opposition to that legislation.
McCain signaled he had made peace with the lame-duck bill to do away with the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian service members, which he had sharply criticized.
“I think I have to do everything I can to make sure that the impact on the morale, retention, recruitment and battle effectiveness of the military is minimized as much as possible,” McCain said on Fox Business. “It is a law and I have to do whatever I can to help the men and women who are serving, particularly in combat, cope with this new situation. I will do everything I can to make it work.”
This whole piece from Jason Linkins is epic, as he traces the history of the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy from its inception to its demise. But I have to highlight his statement about John McCain, because it’s so, so awesome:
And of course, there was Senator John McCain and his decade-long passion project that closely resembles Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ,” except that the “Christ” is replaced by “everything McCain ever had that vaguely resembled a principle or something in which a human being would normally take pride.” McCain moved goalposts and shifted standards and broke promises and basically demonstrated himself to be an implacable heel.
But, you know what, the less said about McCain, the better. Let’s hang another “L” around his neck and move on.
Jason Linkins wins the internet. Anyway, read the whole thing.
Jezebel has the full text of a letter sent by an anonymous gay soldier leaving to serve in Afghanistan. Please click over and read the whole thing, as it is incredibly moving and really drives home what this debate is all about:
The silence is the hardest part. I listen intently as my fellow soldiers talk about facing the reality of leaving their loved ones for a year and all the life events that will be missed. I don’t talk about my own experience at all, because it’s easier to come across as cold and removed than to risk slipping and mentioning that my loved one is of the same gender. For all I know, there are other gay soldiers in my unit, ones who understand what I’m going through. My gay friends in civilian life are supportive, but they don’t often understand the military or soldiering. That camouflage is another burden I carry as I prepare to leave.
[...]
I am angry at the politicians who have for several years talked the talk on the policy, heightening the awareness of homosexuality among military personnel, and then done little to nothing to actually change it. We gay soldiers are the ones who suffer but can’t openly participate in the debate.
I am angry at certain senators -– John McCain comes to mind –- who have obviously lost touch with any understanding of the current generation of service men and women, who, as we all know, support repeal at overwhelming numbers. They hide behind a vitriolic rhetoric fraught with illogical arguments and innuendo, smothered by their obvious fear.
[...]
And I’m reminded of the moral courage of my partner, who encourages me everyday to continue to put on that uniform; who believes that some things are worthy of our energies; who quietly plods along and prepares for my deployment as I do the same. I know as a soldier, it is the people we leave behind who bear the real brunt of deployment, who hold it all together, who send the care packages and pray for our returns. He’ll have to do it on his own though. There are no support groups for the gay partners left back home.
That’s just three random paragraphs I decided to excerpt. Read it all, please.
Igor Volsky has a handy round-up of this morning’s DADT hearings over at the Wonk Room, and provides this compilation of Republican talking points, and how they were refuted by reality:
- CLAIM: Should not lift ban in a time of war.
MULLEN RESPONDS: I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our experiences since 2001. War does not stifle change, it demands it. It does not make change harder, it facilities it.
- CLAIM: Combat troops believe repeal would be disruptive.
HAM RESPONDS: A subsequent question to that was, under intense combat, what would your response be. And we saw the negative rates drop dramatically.
- CLAIM: 28% response rate is too low.
HAM RESPONDS: Twenty-eight percent overall response rate is well within the historical range of Department of Defense surveys of military personnel.
- CLAIM: 265,000 servicemembers would leave the military.
GATES RESPONDS: Based on the survey itself, experience would dramatically lower those numbers. If I believed that a quarter of a million people would leave the military would leave immediately, if given the opportunity, I would certainly have second thoughts about that.
- CLAIM: Servicemembers should have been asked if they believe policy should be changed.
GATES RESPONDS: I can’t think of a single precedent in American history of doing a referendum of the american armed forces on a policy issue.
Why is John McCain so confused about how the military works?
Will John McCain end up standing in a corner all alone with his bigotry? It’s starting to look like it, unless he comes down with a case of Integrity sometime soon:
With less than two weeks until the release of a Pentagon report on how to respond to a repeal of the 1993 law banning openly gay men and lesbians from military service, the Navy’s top officer said he is reviewing the findings and will soon deliver his recommendations to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, praised the extensive review, which was launched in March after President Obama declared his intention to work with Congress this year to repeal the law.
[...]
“I think the survey, without question, was the most expansive survey of the American military that’s ever been undertaken,” Roughead said during an interview Saturday aboard his plane. “I think the work that has been done is extraordinary.”
Roughead, who was returning to Washington from Wilmington, N.C., where he attended the commissioning of the newest Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, said he is still looking over the report before determining his “thoughts and views,” which he will share in the coming days with Gates.
“I’ve done a review [of the report] and now I’m just trying to put it all in context,” he said.
It does seem that the military commanders, with the notable exception of the Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos, are taking the Pentagon study seriously.
Andy Towle points us to the Wonk Room, which reminds us that “McCain frequently cited Roughead’s opposition and that of the the other service chiefs to slow down the legislative repeal process.”
McCain’s pillars are crumbling. So the original question stands. Is he going to continue his petulant fit, or is he going to do the right thing?
John McCain spent the 2008 campaign leaning on his own story of military service [FIVE AND A HALF YEARS, ALAN!] in order to avoid answering questions about his lack of integrity and principles regarding, for instance, military issues. We were supposed to ignore the fact that he stood firmly against the new GI Bill, because, hey, didn’t you hear that JOHN MCCAIN WAS A PRISONER OF WAR? And now, we’re supposed to ignore his lack of principles yet again, as he changes his position on DADT repeal again and again, moving the goalposts every time something happens that he doesn’t like.
But here’s something for you to ponder. Many, many gay and lesbian service members have fought — just like you — and many have died, so that you could be free today.
In World War II, partly because of poor screening practices, and partly because demand for soldiers was so high, up to one million LGBT soldiers fought for their country, according to Allan Berube (1946-2007,) author of the 1990 book Coming Out Under Fire.
[...]
It’s time for you, Senator McCain, to accept the fact that the military has actively tried to seek out LGBT service members. It’s time to see that even your own family finds your positions “awkward.” In short, it is time to support the rights of LGBT service members, and vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
It’s unlikely that McCain will change his mind, since he doesn’t seem to know how to change it in the correct direction on most any issue. But it’s nice to see that the American people are, yet again, getting an object lesson in the fact that the great myth of McCain the reasonable maverick moderate was just a media creation, and that the man beneath the myth has always been a callous wingnut with little regard for anyone but himself.
Sen. Joe Lieberman said Thursday that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” as part of the National Defense Authorization Act is no longer a question of votes, it’s a question of process.
“I am confident that we have more than 60 votes prepared to take up the defense authorization with the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ if only there will be a guarantee of a fair and open amendment process, in other words, whether we’ll take enough time to do it,” Lieberman told reporters at a press conference, naming GOP senators Susan Collins and Richard Lugar as yes votes. “Time is an inexcusable reason not to get this done.”
Lieberman, an independent, was flanked by 12 of his Democratic colleagues — a core group that seemed intent on urging the Democratic leadership to allow enough room in the Senate schedule for a debate that would be acceptable to Republicans. The senators talked about working over the weekends, and Sen. Mark Udall offered to go straight through until Christmas Eve.
Even Jim Webb seems to be backing off of his earlier opposition, citing the huge Pentagon study on the effects of DADT repeal, unlike his colleague, fellow veteran John McCain, who has no principles.
