skippy the bush kangaroo: obama: don't ask don't care

Friday, October 15, 2010

obama: don't ask don't care

we are always amazed at those who think that obama can do no wrong, or, even more ridiculous, who think that he is playing some kind of 12 dimensional chess that the rest of us will never understand.

as much as we love steve benen's work, we scratched our heads when we read his assessment of the obama administration's decision to appeal the court decision to repeal "don't ask don't tell":

at an mtv forum, president obama made clear that, even as a court process continues to play out, his commitment to ending dadt has not changed…

on this, the white house has at least been consistent -- officials want to end dadt, but on their timeline, and through an act of congress.

but every time i hear an official talk about the need for an "orderly" repeal process, i wonder exactly what that means. when the policy changes, it changes. one day certain statements lead to a discharge, the next day they don't. what needs to be "orderly"?...

at the same time, however, the court-issued injunction is, at least for now, the law the pentagon has to follow. and so, as of yesterday, dadt is no longer being enforced. that may change quickly if the 9th circuit stayed the injunction*, but as of this minute, any ongoing investigations and/or discharges of gay or lesbian service members have been brought to a halt.

one final point. an administration spokesperson said yesterday that the justice department "is defending the statute, as it traditionally does when acts of congress are challenged." i spoke to a few legal folks yesterday who agreed with this -- an administration may not be required to appeal rulings, but there is an expectation that an administration will do its due diligence when it comes to defending laws passed by congress.

i mention this because, appealing the dadt ruling doesn't necessarily mean that the obama administration disagrees with the outcome.[ed. note: emphasis added]

we think obama is playing politician with one of his strongest constituencies (ie, humans who like civil rights). we know americablog thinks so, too. so does pam's house blend.

we agree w/one of the commentors on steve's post:

if lyndon johnson had had obama's political courage, obama still would be riding in th back of the bus instead of riding in air force one.

posted by skippy at 9:38 AM |

5 Comments:

It is constantly amazing to me that people are willing to make excuses for Obama no matter what he does.

Quite often it is accompanied with the observation that FDC and LBJ weren't perfect either.

commented by

lawguy, 1:02 PM PDT

yeah, i hate the federation of dance commissions.

commented by

skippy, 1:07 PM PDT

I have been disappointed in Obama also, but...
Being a middle age white man, I might get this wrong, but I can't help but be reminded of Jackie Robinson.
I mean, Obama is black, so he can't behave or respond like a white man would under the circumstances. That would be uppity, or whatever.
I mean, think about the number of people who think that his presidency is not even legitimate!!
So, is he behaving the way I would want him to? Of course not, but I'm not the president. And I’m willing to give him some latitude.
Steve

commented by

Anonymous, 1:57 PM PDT

How long and how much latitude? Well as I said some people are more than willing to excuse everything he does.

commented by

lawguy, 6:05 PM PDT

My bullshit-o-meter is in the red zone.
Obama is a constitutional scholar but does not understand *equal rights*?

Dear Mr. President~ I don't want to hope for change-- I want actual change.

commented by

Fran, 10:32 PM PDT

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