House Repubs. schedule hearing on DADT repeal this Friday

[Bluebear]

by Joe Sudbay:

Alex Nicholson is calling out the House Republicans over the real purpose of this hearing:

Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, said his organization supports the routine practice of congressional oversight, but added the purpose of the House hearing is "rather transparent."

"Some House Republicans, including and especially the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, would like nothing more than to derail the Defense Department's thus-far successful planning for repeal implementation, or at least slow it down considerably," Nicholson said. "This cadre of reactionaries needs to understand once and for all that this issue is settled and no more time or taxpayer money should be wasted trying to take us backwards on this."

Exactly.

Think about this for a minute: The initial White House strategy, which had the tacit support of some LGBT "leaders," would have pushed a vote on repeal into 2011. That was their plan (and despite the rewriting of history, all the key players know that was the plan.) Imagine where we'd be if we sat back and let that strategy play out. It would have been a disaster. That's why so many people worked so hard to push the White House and Congress to pass repeal in 2010. It was not part of the original plan. Yet, the political mastermind behind that flawed 2011 strategy is now running the President's reelection campaign.

http://gay.americablog.com/2011/03/house-repubs-schedule-hearing-on-dadt.html

[Pab Sungenis]

1. They effectively did that.

Obama wanted a political win, and a sop to the GLBT community, so the bill was structured so that it will probably never be implemented.

First there's the need for him, Gates, and the Service Chiefs to sign off on it, and we know that the CJCS will never sign off on the repeal, or will at least slow walk it.

Then there's the 60 day "Congressional Review" period, which will give the Republicans in the House a chance to kill it, or at least tie it up in the courts until a Republican wins in 2012, and kills the repeal outright by not issuing his certification as required.