I just wrote a rather large piece about this over on AMERICAblog Gay. Here's an excerpt:
Strike "DADT" and insert "public option" and this could be a quote from last year, when the White House refused to push for the public option, but stated repeatedly that if the legislation magically somehow landed on the President's desk, he'd sign it.
We need leadership. From our groups, from the Congress, and most of all from our President. The military ban is his domain, no one else's. He may be able to get away with claiming it's Congress' job to repeal DOMA and pass ENDA (even though the President has one hell of a role in helping to get Congress to do that), but the repeal of DADT is going to come down to what the Department of Defense and its Commander in Chief decide they want. Congress, for better or worse, will likely follow the lead of DOD and the President on this one. And neither is leading.
We had a great seven days for DADT, between the State of the Union and the Armed Services hearing, and now that momentum is in danger of being lost. Servicemembers United presented an excellent compromise this week, that could really move the ball forward - namely, repeal this year with delayed implementation until the DOD study is done. But it happened in a vacuum, a vacuum of leadership.
