The day after the Democrats took a beating in the midterm elections, former GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in discussing repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “You could probably accomplish it now.”
Clearly you can tell by listening to the entire conversation that, one day after the elections, Giuliani is looking to get back in the political landscape, and is hoping to build his base by reaching out to gay Republicans. That’s fine with me if he wants to use this as a bridge. Let’s just get “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repealed.
Thanks to Igor Volsky at Think Progress for the transcript and the video:
GIULIANI: I didn’t see [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] as a big issue in this. The social issues were not in this. So maybe that’s an area where Republican can ease up a little bit and not …
BLITZER: But you support gay rights?
GIULIANI: I do.
BLITZER: So you would get rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?
GIULIANI: My feeling about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was, in the middle of the height of the Iraq war, not a good time to do it. We’re not in the middle of the height of the Iraq war. Afghanistan is a different kind of thing. You could probably accomplish it now. It’s eventually going to happen and it seems to me that it gets my party out of this anti-gay, feeling that we’re being unfair to people who are gay.
Watch Giuliani talk about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during the 2007 presidential debates:
I’m happy to have him on board!
The New Civil Rights Movement
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