A tale of two Gibbs

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked today about the President's promise to repeal the military's anti-gay Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Watch him attempt to answer the question.



He's completely uncomfortable. It's almost as if he were blindsided by the question, even though he's been asked about it countless times before. Also note that Gibbs is using the "new" White House language on DADT - talking about "changing" the policy, rather than repealing it. And using odd words like "sustainable," which must be code for something we're really not going to like.

Now watch Gibbs answer a similar question about Don't Ask Don't Tell in January.



Notice how in January Gibbs was confident and resolute, compared to his nervous, seemingly unprepared answer today.

I have no idea what's really going on in the White House, but here's my guess. I think some people in the White House legitimately think the President is going to follow through on his promise to lift the ban. Others, closer to the President, think that lifting the ban makes no sense politically, and in any case, where are the gays gonna go? Vote for Palin next time? I think the senior political people (Rahm?), with the help of the national security folks (i.e., Defense), have concocted a cute little scheme whereby the President does "something" on DADT in the next year or so - just enough to claim he didn't break his repeated promises. He will "change" the policy, not repeal it, in some way that cuts the baby of bigotry in half, and gives half to the gays and half to the bigots. And we'll be told, take it or leave it. (And that's when, of course, all hell will break loose.) I fear that this is why Robert Gibbs has lost his voice. Because he secretly knows that we're on the path to getting screwed. What other explanation is there for the ongoing weirdness coming out of a once-resolute White House and its senior representatives on this repeated, and clear, promise by our President?