Obama says he will not order 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repealed

Philadelphia Gay News scored an interview with Barack Obama on gay issues. In addition to a non-answer about trying to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, he said he would NOT use executive order to allow gays in the military and rationalized it like this:

"I would not do it that way. The reason is because I want to make sure that when we reverse “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” it’s gone through a process and we’ve built a consensus or at least a clarity of that, of what my expectations are, so that it works. My first obligation as the president is to make sure that I keep the American people safe and that our military is functioning effectively. Although I have consistently said I would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I believe that the way to do it is make sure that we are working through a process, getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff clear in terms of what our priorities are going to be. That’s how we were able to integrate the armed services to get women more actively involved in the armed services. At some point, you’ve got to make a decision that that’s the right thing to do, but you always want to make sure that you are doing it in a way that maintains our core mission in our military."

Let me say it more simply: Obama isn't going to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but he'll gladly take every pink dollar he can get his hands on.

Comments

[John]

Great blog you have here, Cyd, as well as OutSports. I've been very critical of Obama & the Dems for their hypocrisy on this issue specifically as well as others, but in fairness some of your fire is misplaced. Even if the president wanted to he cannot lift the ban by executive order anymore. The ban is U.S. law (10 U.S.C. § 654), enacted by a Dem Congress in 1993 and signed by a Dem president. It will take another act of Congress to repeal the ban, along with another president to sign the act.

[studd]

Gee I wonder who will be the scape goats if the credit bunch turns out to be a real depression. Maybe someone can tag it on all those wife swaping NYC gay whores who collect children like toy poodles and have sex summer parties on fire island/hamptons. I wouldnt put it past the Dems but we already know that the self-hating homos in the republican party are ready to dress in drag as nazis so why should we trust them? We may not have any true friends but we already know who our enemies/opportunsts are, eh?

[Tim]

Interesting. I wonder how this plan compares to McCain's plan to repeal DADT.