Politico has an article today on the movement, or lack thereof, to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell from the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill (and this Poltico piece actually quotes some people by name, including Rep. Anthony Weiner.) We posted it at AMERICAblog Gay.
The crux of the article is that since the State of the Union, there's been little, if any communication from the White House on a strategy for moving forward. The White House lead on this is issue is Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina. He's been an instrumental player in the health care strategy, particularly on the Senate side. This excerpt aligns with what John and I have been hearing:
House and Senate aides praised Obama, Mullen and Gates but say the administration’s point man in the Senate, Jim Messina, hasn’t followed up with a detailed plan for how to proceed, leading to some confusion.Yes, at this point in time, we don't need "confusion." We need a plan. Yesterday, Servicemembers United, whose members are directly impacted by the law, presented a path forward that would insure repeal while addressing the needs of military leaders. It could be a breakthrough. That is, if the White House wants one.
“We need a clear path forward,” a senior House Democratic aide said.
As we've noted repeatedly, to succeed, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell should be part of the Defense authorization bill. So far, the Obama administration has not included repeal language in its budget requests. There's still time, but not much.
In the real world, outside of DC where every word is parsed for hidden meaning, people think that the President has made a commitment to repeal DADT this year. Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue have to step up to make it happen.
