The line about them needing all their various houses in order to contain their conflicting beliefs = gold.

And throughout this whole thing, with Cindy’s sudden reversion to “supporting John’s stance on DADT,” I can’t help but going back to this story.

Joe Lieberman talked to Andrea Mitchell this morning and encouraged the Pentagon to go ahead and release its DADT study [which reportedly has very positive implications in support of DADT repeal], in order to speed up the process:

Mitchell: With all due respect, I was kind of stunned because – what about Mike Mullen – Admiral Mike Mullen is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. They [the commanders] report to him. If it’s good enough for him and for [Defense Sec.] Robert Gates and if this is the survey we understand is coming out in December – why isn’t it good enough for John McCain?

Lieberman: Well, of course, in this case, I disagree strongly with my friend John McCain and I agree with you. The fact is that this is a policy – we’ve had thousands of gay and lesbian Americans putting their lives on the line to protect our security and we’re telling them that basically they’ve got to lie about who they are.

I was so encouraged by the first indications of the study that’s being done – thousands and thousands of our military personnel and their families questioned – more than 70 percent, apparently, have said, ‘No Problem’ because in the classic situation when you’re in battle, you don’t care what anybody’s sexual orientation or race or gender or nationality or religion is. You care about whether they’re going to fight well. And that’s the way it ought to be.

And you’re right. The bill that – the measure that we’ve put in doesn’t automatically repeal Don’t’ Ask, Don’t’ Tell. It says that the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have to certify – based on everything they know, including the study that’s been done – that repealing Don’t’ Ask, Don’t’ Tell won’t compromise military effectiveness or morale. And that’s pretty rationale so I’m not giving up on us doing a repeal of Don’t’ Ask, Don’t Tell during the lame duck session. To make that possible, I hope that the Defense Department can find a way to issue this report that they’ve got pretty much done – but they’re going through clearance now – as quickly as possible. Certainly before December 1. We’ve got time to do this – and it’s the right thing to do.

Why does John McCain have so little respect for the Pentagon? Oh wait…this isn’t about respect; it’s about the fact that John McCain is a man completely devoid of principles or integrity.

Oh, hohohohoho, fun at the McCain house this Thanksgiving!

Just watch:

[h/t Wonkette]

Cutting out a bit early today, so here’s your Weekly Round-up and your Late Friday Random Ten.

Let us remember the week that was, together:  First off, Wayne was on Rachel Maddow last Friday night!  It went great.  On a smaller scale, I was randomly on David Pakman’s Midweek Politics with David Pakman, and it also went great.  I sounded gay.

Speaking of gays [imagine that], gays can kiss longer than straight people, so nyah.  Good thing, because two polls now show that marriage equality has majority support, so there’s a lot of kissyface in our future.  The Religious Right are victims now, in Canada and Indianapolis, where they were asked to make gay cupcakes.  I discussed the need for minorities to stand up for each other, specifically as regards moderate and liberal Muslims vis a vis the gay community.  Oh, and I went off on Chris Barron of GOProud, which led to a Twitter Fight, which led to a nice discussion about BBQ.  He’s a fun sparring partner, I’ll give him that.

Bishop Eddie Long:  gay sex scandal.  John Boehner:  maybe straight sex scandal.  Who knows?  It would be nice if he or the alleged mistress would answer “yes” or “no.”

DADTFail 2010:  Lady Gaga tried to help, Peter Sprigg grunted and moaned about it a lot, then Thers and I laughed at him.  Bryan Fischer also grunted and moaned.  Laughed at him, too.  Susan Collins sucked, as did almost everybody else in the Senate, and in the end it was a big serving of fail all around.  After the vote, John McCain lost his marbles, thanks to a good serving of the old “Eleveld,” which is the new word for “journalist.”  Wayne recapped it here, and we looked at Leonard Matlovich’s tombstone, poignant as it is.

Then a crazy guy in Saxby Chambliss’s office decided to leave threatening anti-gay comments on JoeMyGod, so that was embarrassing for big old homophobe Saxby.  Speaking of homophobes, HomoCon is tomorrow!  YAY!  Okay, that’s all.

Music this week is from that old gay classic musical RENT.  I happened to be listening to the Original Cast recording last night, and I really don’t have to set it up for you, because you’re all gay and stuff, so you can probably sing the entire show all the way through in your sleep, and some of you probably know the blocking.  Anyway, one of my very favorite moments in all of musical theater is after the first “La Vie Boheme“, when Mimi and Roger sing “I Should Tell You” to each other. [Insert flutter, sigh and single tear here.]   So we’ll start with that, hit shuffle on the old iTunes machine and, oh look, it’s like, my favorite Tori Amos song ever, and also some other stuff.  More videos after le jump.

1.  Jay Brannan – “Bowlegged and Starving”
2. Tokyo Police Club – “Tessellate” [Remix by Tom Campesinos!]
3. Banjo or Freakout – “Joy to the World”
4. 10,000 Maniacs – “Gold Rush Brides”
5. Tori Amos – “Lust”
6. Fever Ray – “If I Had A Heart”
7. Lightning Dust – “Never Seen”
8. U2 – “Numb”
9. David Mead – “Girl on the Roof”
10. Port O’Brien – “In the Meantime”

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And Keith Olbermann is reporting on it, as well as John McCain’s widdle senile temper tantrum after the DADT vote:

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ office has determined it was indeed the source of a highly publicized homosexual-bashing slur on an Internet site. But in a statement, Chambliss’ office said it has not discovered exactly who was behind the slur, and has turned the matter over to the Senate Sergeant At Arms. “The (Sergeant at Arms) has worked side by side with our personnel to determine whether the comment in question emanated from our office. That appears to be the case,” an unsigned statement from Chambliss’ press office read. “There has not been a determination as to who posted the comment,” the statement read. “That part of the review is ongoing, and is now in the hands of the Senate Sergeant at Arms.” Spokeswomen for Chambliss did not return a reporters phone calls or emails seeking more details.

Joe Jervis also mentions that he has been interviewed by The New York Times on the story.

The money quote from the above video, though, comes from Dan Savage, on the subject of John McCain’s outburst:   “Props to Kerry Eleveld for committing an act of journalism in the presence of a US Senator.”

Props, indeed.

It’s sad watching a man succumb to God-Knows-What right in front of our eyes. Kerry Eleveld and Chris Geidner went after McCain on the issue of the military actively going on witchhunts for gay servicemembers, and Walnuts! just sticks his fingers in his ears and doesn’t want to hear it, no he doesn’t!

The man is becoming more and more pathetic.

Here, via The Wonk Room at Think Progress, is the hilarious word-for-word transcript:

MCCAIN: We do not go out and seek. Regulations are, we do not go out and seek to find out if someone’s sexual orientation. We do not!

ELEVELD: But senator, that’s not…

MCCAIN: That is the fact! That is the fact. Now ma’am, I know the military very well, and I know what’s being done. And what is being done is that they are not seeking out people who are gay. And I don’t care what you say, I know it’s a fact.

ELEVELD: It’s not what I say.

MCCAIN: I dont’ care what you say! And I don’t care what others say. I’ve seen it in action. I’ve seen it in action. I have sons in the military, I know the military very well. So they’re not telling you the truth.

ELEVELD: Senator, just to make sure…

MCCAIN: Just to make sure. We do not go out and seek out and find out….

ELEVELD: Private emails are not being searched? Private emails are not being searched?

MCCAIN: …See if someone is gay or not. We do not go out and see whether someone is gay or not.

ELEVELD: There are documented cases…

MCCAIN: They do not, they do not, they do not. You can say that they are, you can say [inaudible] it’s not true!… Yea, I’d like to see…

GEIDNER: It is the case of Mike Almy, Senators.

MCCAIN: Bring them to our office. It is not the policy, it is not the policy, it is not the policy.

GEIDNER: But it is the case that it’s happening, Senator.

MCCAIN: It is not the policy, it is not the policy, it is not the policy You can say that it is the policy, sir if you choose to. It is not the policy. I would be glad to get that to you in writing.

So John McCain is a hypocritical homophobe with no principles and he’s becoming completely unhinged from reality. Does that about cover it?

She’s serious about this.  She’s in Maine holding a rally today to put pressure on the two moderate Republican Senators from that state, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to break John McCain’s petulant little homophobic crybaby filibuster.

Kerry Eleveld:

Lady Gaga announced via Twitter Sunday evening that she would be attending a last-minute rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday targeted at convincing GOP senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to vote with Democrats to help break a filibuster that, if successful, could effectively kill the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal effort for the year.

“Meet me in Portland, Maine 2moro, 9/20 to help repeal #DADT. I’m holding a Rally + speaking live in Deering Oaks Park http://bit.ly/cO4cY9,” said the tweet sent from Lady Gaga’s account, @ladygaga, which has over 6.3 million followers.

The rally, which is being billed as “For the 14,000” discharged under the policy (or “#4the14k” in twitter speak), will be held at 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday, September 20, at Deering Oaks Park and has been organized by the pro-repeal lobby group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. A spokesman for SLDN said it was a last-ditch effort to garner the 60 votes needed to move the National Defense Authorization Act to which the repeal measure is attached. The vote on the Senate floor is scheduled for Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.

“The votes to break Sen. John McCain’s filibuster are not there,” acknowledged Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of SLDN.  “Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine are key to breaking the filibuster. With the vote Tuesday, we need everyone supporting repeal to call their senators.”

Eleveld’s piece points out that this required quite a bit of schedule shuffling, since Gaga is currently on tour in the South.  For her to find a way to jet off to Maine for a minute to harness her millions of Twitter followers and Facebook fans and the rest of the Little Monster Diaspora to do something political and important shows that she’s actually committed to the repeal of the awful discriminatory DADT policy.

Fierce advocate, indeed.

[h/t Joe Sudbay]

What can be said about this week that doesn’t involve either Christine O’Donnell or Lady Gaga?  Very little, so let’s not try.

Lady Gaga went to the VMAs with soldiers discharged under DADT;  then she carried it further by calling on her “Little Monsters” to call their Senators, so they did; then she taught everybody a civics lesson, explaining to an uninformed American public what a “filibuster” is; and then she talked directly to the Senate via a recorded video, and encouraged people to continue calling their Senators.

Christine O’Donnell:  Supports ex-gay ministries, hates diddly fingers and pocket pool, dropped a friend like a hot rock when he stopped pretending to be “ex-gay,” and is generally insane in a bunch of other ways, but don’t worry, one self-loathing gay man hearts her.

Otherwise:  Charlie Crist is trying to be gay for gay rights now.  We had a long discussion about whether “homosexual” is a good word or a bad word.  John McCain is a homophobic phony.  Every Catholic congregation in Belgium has been affected by child molestation, which should give Bill Donohue pause before he starts mouthing off about Hitler being an atheist.  Hitler was of course, Catholic, like Bill Donohue.  Cindy Jacobs saved the lesbians AND the internet, before lunch.  South Carolina Republicans:  still racist.  Wayne explained why we’re still not winning the War on Terror.  Bryan Fischer is trying to explain how he’s not anti-Muslim or anti-gay by being MORE anti-Muslim/anti-gay.  Lou Engle’s IHOP is finally being sued by the pancake IHOP.  Some coach in Kentucky likes coaching basketball, as long as his girls aren’t lesbians.  And later tonight, the wingnuts at the Values Voters Summit are going to have movie-time!

Music this week comes from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, for two reasons:  A. Sharon is awesome. If you like neo-soul/blues/whatever, and ladies with big voices, you will like Sharon. B. I’m going to see her live this weekend, and I’m giddy with anticipation. The songs we’ll start with are “How Long Do I Have To Wait For You?” and “Tell Me.” The first one has shown up in a Late Friday Random Ten before, and I try not to repeat things, but I don’t care, because I make the rules. So let’s listen to these two amazing songs, and then we’ll hit shuffle on the second one and see what the iTunes [which crashed this week, which caused me to have about three panic attacks as I rebuilt the library] does. More videos after the jump.

1. Mount Eerie – “Between Two Mysteries”
2. The Smashing Pumpkins – “Widow Wake My Mind”
3. Loretta Lynn – “High On A Mountain Top”
4. We Were Promised Jetpacks – “Roll Up Your Sleeves”
5. The Sundays – “24 Hours”
6. Suzanne Vega – “Frank & Ava”
7. Alicia Keys – “If I Ain’t Got You”
8. The Silent League – “Yours Truly, 2095 [Memory Tapes Version]“
9. Suckers – “Easy Chairs”
10. The Morning Benders – “Excuses”

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In today’s New York Times there is a story about how the GOP wants to keep Bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthiest Americans. At the end of the article, it mentions the upcoming vote on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell — and discusses opposition by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). The senator actually has the nerve to say that Majority Leader Harry Reid is scheduling a vote because of politics instead of principle. According to the Times:

The senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he would try to block the Pentagon measure because he said the White House was moving to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” without properly gauging the impact on battle readiness and troop morale.

Mr. McCain said that he did not believe there was time to complete the bill and that Democrats had other motivations. “Everything that’s done around here is done for political reasons,” he said. “And Harry Reid does everything for political reasons.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

This is the same John McCain who has reinvented himself as a Tea Party conservative in the past year to win his GOP primary. This is the same John McCain that put our national security at risk by choosing the inexperienced Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee. This is the same McCain who ran for president as a maverick, but now denies that he is a maverick. This is the same crass politician who spent his sorry career pushing for campaign finance reform– only to run away from the issue in this year’s campaign. This is the same McCain who wanted sensible immigration reform, but now supports the draconian and discriminatory Arizona law and poses by the border saying we should build the dang fence.

In the history of modern politics, has there been a more protean politician than John McCain? Has there been a bigger phony in Washington? If there is, I certainly can’t recall his or her name. John McCain is a self-absorbed, power-hungry charlatan who stands for only one issue: His career.

Our friend David Mixner wrote a good piece in 2007, “The Selling Out of John McCain”. Here is a short article I wrote on McCain.

Michael Jones has the goods:

Look him up on opensecrets.org, and you’ll see that Kenneth Mehlman has given money to a wide range of politicians working to take away rights for LGBT Americans.

There’s $2,400 to Missouri Republican Roy Blunt, who has voted to add a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage, as well as to ban gay adoption.

There’s $2,400 to Sen. John McCain, who wants to keep gay servicemembers out of the military.

There’s $1,000 to Ben Quayle, who is running for Congress in Arizona and who just labeled Barack Obama the worst President in history, and who just sent out a mailer to voters touting his opposition to marriage equality.

There’s $2,400 to Illinois Republican Mark Kirk, who voted to keep “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in place (and who himself is subject to lots of rumors about his sexual orientation).

There’s $2,400 to Utah Republican Sen. Robert Bennett, who tried to stop marriage equality from becoming a reality in Washington, D.C.

And the list goes on and on and includes Republicans like Rob Portman, Kelly Ayotte, Bob Corker, Richard Shelby, and Johnny Isakson, all of whom have taken positions completely contrary to full equality for LGBT Americans.

I have nothing to add to what Joe said about this:

I believe hookers call that “working both sides of the street.”

Heh.