White House’s Statement On DOJ’s Position in “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Case
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, in an interesting attempt to, perhaps, salvage the LGBT vote, just released this statement.
Today, the Department of Justice made a filing in a legal challenge to the Don’t Ask, Don’t tell (DADT) policy, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. This filing in no way diminishes the President’s firm commitment to achieve a legislative repeal of DADT – indeed, it clearly shows why Congress must act to end this misguided policy.  The President was disappointed earlier this week when a majority of the Senate was willing to proceed with National Defense Authorization Act, but political posturing created a 60 vote threshold. The President spoke out against DADT in his first State of the Union Address, and the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs have both testified in support of repeal.  And the Department of Defense continues to work on a plan on how to implement repeal. The President, along with his Administration, will continue to work with the Senate Leadership to achieve a legislative repeal of DADT as outlined in the NDAA this fall.
As I just wrote to someone on Twitter, “Words are words and actions are actions. I love Obama’s words, but his actions have not matched them. “
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