Fri, 07/03/2009 - 4:38pm — Sarah
A sailor -- from Houston -- is found dead at his California Navy base. He was out to his friends. Rawstory asks: Did DADT get him killed? Obama says he wants Congress to change the DADT law rather than doing it by (readily reversible?) executive fiat. But Barney Frank says the Dems don't have enough votes. WTF
?
Democrats in Congress — including openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) — say their party doesn’t currently have enough votes to overturn the law. Public opinion polls show that a vast majority of Americans believe gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military.
(PS My kid's up on crutches & doing fine. The other kid and his new kitten -- the one who hid in the fan shroud of his truck and broke a leg and got her head gashed being flung out by the fan -- is here for a visit. See y'all later, but TALK about this story!!)
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I believe Obama can side-step DADT by executive order.
No?
Medicare for All is Civil Rights
I believe so
I think what Sarah, being generous, is suggesting, is that Obama might not want to do it that way because some future President down the road could undo his order.
OTOH, if he thinks it is important, why not whip it?
And do not talk to me about using up political capital. He's nowhere near to that point.
Would LBJ worry about using up political capital? :>
(I'm thinking more and more fondly of LBJ these days...)
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
Couldn't he at least put a moratorium
on DADT expulsions by executive order until Congress can legislatively deal with repealing DADT?
Wouldn't that be a strong statement in support of equal rights? Or is that part of the problem - that Obama doesn't really want to be known as the president responsible for making it okay for openly gay individuals to serve their country?
I've come to the conclusion that Obama punts to Congress anything he doesn't really care all that much about - if they can get it done, fine, he'll be happy to take credit for "leading the way," but if they don't, or won't or can't, he can just blame them and act like, hey, it's not really his fault.
I still can't believe it's been less than 6 months; gonna be a long 4 years, and the thought of it maybe being 8 years? I just can't think about it too much; it makes my head and my stomach hurt.
BO chose not to do so -- he wants the "firmness" of a bill from
Congress.
It also kicks the can way down the road.
Or, the ball gets thrown into the Dem Congressional folks' court.
As with many things, he avoids taking a stand by tossing details, etc., to Congress.