DADT Is Dead

Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) is dead. The asinine policy ended just after midnight this morning.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

There are some folks who are still opposed to this and think that this will somehow alter the readiness of the military or that it will undermine unit cohesion or otherwise lessen the capabilities of the military, but I think it will have the opposite effect.

And the military will be operating as it did 24 hours ago, and it issued a notice to that effect, except that some people who might have not considered a military career will now get that option without fear or consequences of their sexual orientation.

That's a good thing.

Sizing Up A Legendary Lame Session

It's typically understood that a lame duck session doesn't result in significant or notable outcomes. Legislators typically attempt to wind down the session with bills that are still pending.


Usually, significant legislation doesn't pass.

In fact, the 20th Amendment was supposed to eliminate lame duck sessions, but that Amendment hasn't worked out as its backers had envisioned.


The usual outcomes don't apply to the ongoing Congressional lame duck session. In fact, this is shaping up to be a legendary and historic lame duck session because of the issues being tackled.

The era of don't ask, don't tell is about to end as legislation repealing 10 USC 654, the statute that prohibits gays and lebsians serving in the military, awaits President Obama's signature. After the November election, this was not an outcome one would have expected and it is to the credit of its backers that they persevered to get it done.

Congress passed a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, which again wasn't a done deal.

The Zadroga 9/11 compensation package for the Ground Zero workers is still pending, and its backers are hopeful for its passage. The START treaty is also pending, and it is possible that the treaty will not go before the session and instead it will be taken up in the new Congress. The same can't be said for the DREAM act. That bill is not going to pass.

DADT Repealed At Long Last

Despite ongoing resistance by Republicans, the era of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is all but over. Eight Republicans joined the Democratic caucus to pass the repeal 65-31. The federal statute that required the military to discharge servicemembers who are gay or lesbian has been repealed, but the Defense Department has to enact procedural measures to carry out the repeal. That means that the executive order requiring the military to not ask about sexual orientation and servicemembers not to tell or else they would be discharged will come to an end.

It represented a significant victory for the White House, Congressional advocates of lifting the ban and activists who have pushed for years to end the Pentagon policy created in 1993 under the Clinton administration as a compromise effort to end the practice of barring gay men and lesbians entirely from military service.

Saying it represented an emotional moment for members of the gay community nationwide, advocates who supported repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” exchanged hugs outside the Senate chamber after the vote.

“Today’s vote means gay and lesbian service members posted all around the world can stand taller knowing that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will soon be coming to an end,” said Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and his party’s presidential candidate in 2008, led the opposition to the repeal and said the vote was a sad day in history.

“I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage,” Mr. McCain said. “And we could possibly and probably, as the commandant of the Marine Corps said, and as I have been told by literally thousands of members of the military, harm the battle effectiveness vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military.”

He and others opposed to lifting the ban said the change could harm the unit cohesion that is essential to effective military operations, particularly in combat, and deter some Americans from enlisting or pursuing a career in the military. They noted that despite support for repealing the ban from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, other military commanders have warned that changing the practice would prove disruptive.

“This isn’t broke,” Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, said about the policy. “It is working very well.”

Other Republicans said that while the policy might need to be changed at some point, Congress should not do so when American troops are fighting overseas.

Ultimately, I'm not sure it will have any measurable effect on military efficiencies or combat readiness, but it will mean that gay and lesbian servicemembers will no longer be discharged if they announce their orientation. More than 14,000 servicemembers have been discharged under the policy, and that affects readiness because of the time and cost of training members and the lost skills that they bring to their service.

It eliminates a civil rights injustice and one that the courts may have resolved if Congress had not acted.

The Pentagon has surveyed thousands of members and found that it would not have been disruptive or caused the kinds of problems that Republicans had warned about.

UPDATE:


Another significant result of the repeal is that college campuses that had previously refused to allow ROTC programs, will now reconsider. Harvard and Yale are already making preparations.

DADT Policy One Step Closer To Repeal But Hurdles Remain

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) will back the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in the US Armed Forces, bringing the number of Senators to 61.

Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown today voiced his support for a stand-alone repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, bringing the bill one vote over the 60-vote threshold that it will need to reach if and when the Senate votes on the measure in the coming weeks.“Sen. Brown accepts the Pentagon’s recommendation to repeal the policy after proper preparations have been completed. If and when a clean repeal bill comes up for a vote, he will support it,” said Brown spokesperson Gail Gitcho.

Brown’s backing means that – on paper – supporters of the repeal have 61 senators in favor of the bill. On Wednesday Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lisa Murkowski both announced their support for the stand-alone repeal. The House passed the clean repeal on Wednesday and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to bring it to a vote in the Senate before the end of the year.

This move would lead to the repeal of the US law that prohibits the service of homosexuals in the US Armed Forces - 10 USC 654. It has taken Executive Orders to establish the DADT policy to circumvent the outright ban. The repeal of the statute requires legislative action, which has been a long time coming.

Despite Brown's support, this bill might not see the floor for a vote because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warns that there may not be time to secure passage in a tight agenda with the holidays looming. It's asinine to believe that Reid can't manage to find the time to secure passage of the DADT repeal and suggests that it just isn't high enough on his priorities to make it happen, although he'll point to the necessity of passing the START treaty and other legislation. Reid's leadership has been wanting, and this is yet another sign that Reid should not have been granted the leadership post by his fellow Democrats.

Congress has failed to pass budget legislation and is operating on continuing budget resolutions to fund government operations. That blame rests with the leadership in both the House and Senate. That there is a lack of time to secure passage of the remaining legislation on the calendar is the fault of the leadership on both sides of the aisle.