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December 02, 2010 12:50 AM UTC

Mark Udall Speaks Optimistically On "DADT" Repeal

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

From MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show yesterday:

THURSDAY UPDATE: Colorado Independent:

Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, a leader in the effort to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell gays in the military policy, told MSNBC he “sees a greenlight” to pass the repeal this week after the Armed Services Committees hold hearings on the repeal in the wake of a much-anticipated Pentagon report on the repeal. The hearings will include testimony from the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

“If we don’t get this done now… I fear it will be a number of years before we actually have a statutory repeal, and the Chairman of the Joint Chief and the Secretary of Defense are saying they want to do this now because they want clarity. They also know this is about national security [as well as civil rights]… We’re in two wars and we’ve discharged over 14,000 patriotic Americans.”

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21 thoughts on “Mark Udall Speaks Optimistically On “DADT” Repeal

        1. The Dream Act, DADT, and other items are on the “Gimme my rich peoples tax breaks before I say ‘Hell, no!'” track.

          START, being a treaty requiring a 2/3 majority, is on the “Hell, no! Fugeddaboutit.” track, just like so many other treaties and international conventions the Senate hasn’t ratified in the past decade or two.  The only redeeming quality about it being a treaty is that any future Senate could take it up, assuming the intransigent branch of the Republican Party somehow implodes some year.

  1. and the security of the American People.  By that standard, DADT has outlived its usefulness and should go.  It is difficult to find enough qualified recruits and artibrarily excluding qualified applicants because of their sexual orientation benefits no one except perhaps al-Qaeda.  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Isn’t Fair, Doesn’t Work.

    I served with gay soldiers and all veterans did.  The only difference now is that they will be open.  But as the dismissal of the gay language specialists shows, there are a significant number of soldiers with vital skills who are gay or lesbian.  We should not weaken our national security by arbitrarily denying their request to serve their country.

    1. that about 70% of the military is either supportive or doesn’t care whether there are gay members of the military.

      As one of my friends pointed out, the military might be much more accepting of LGBT folks than the American public!

      1. From New West:

        When Mark Udall was running for Colorado’s open Senate seat last November, his opponent blasted him as a “Boulder liberal.” So he caught a lot of attention recently when the Senator joined a group of centrist Democrats, the Moderate Dems Working Group, that critics saw as anti-Obama. Popular MSNBC host Rachel Maddow labeled them “conservadems.”

        Udall is open to fair criticism for being too meek in wielding his legislative power. But Maddow (whom I generally like) is just plain wrong in broadly describing Udall and Bennet as conservatives.

        You could fit the Senate Progressive Caucus in a phone booth and still have room to turn around. The upper chamber is, if nothing else, pack animals. Thus, the need to align with factions even if there isn’t complete ideological parity with one’s personal perspective.

  2. For all the idiots we get “representing” our state on national shows spouting nonsense, it’s such a relief to have one not taking blatant hits at the other side, addressing more than one viewpoint, and not apologizing for doing the right thing.

    It’s been a long time since I’ve been happy to hear the “of Colorado” at the end of the interview.

  3. In 1960, candidate for president John Kennedy made clear that civil rights for Negros (using the terminology of that time) was a moral issue. And so it is with this issue in our time.

    Now GOP Senators are threatening to scuttle everything if they don’t extract their “pound of flesh”, i.e. their tax cuts for the rich at a time of enormous budget deficits.

    I find their actions amoral, unpatriotic, and fiscally irresponsible.

    Barry Goldwater said it best when he said the only requirement for service in the armed services should be that you shoot straight, not that you were straight. Your skill and competency is what matters, not your sexual orientation  

    1. Barry Goldwater said it best when he said the only requirement for service in the armed services should be that you shoot straight, not that you were straight. Your skill and competency is what matters, not your sexual orientation  

         I only thing I would add is a gastronomical tolerance for Shit on a Shingle is also a major benefit, though not strictly speaking a requirement, for military service.

  4. I appreciate Udall’s hopefulness but would guess there is a 1 in 3 chance of this passing, at best.  The quote of JFK is perhaps the best evidence.  That was 1960?  It was 4 more years and his death before civil rights were recognized by the Senate.

    Don’t get me wrong, I support repeal, and I support doing it soon.  Otherwise, the courts will overturn it, which could lead to unwieldy solutions (such as happened with school desegregation).  Better to follow the preferred Constitutional path of Congress acting.

    Politically, I think it’s a mistake for Dems to hold out hope on this.  I think it’s not likely and, as we saw in November, disappointed activists tend to punish those who hold out hope, not the squelchers of it.

  5. I did four in the Navy with some ‘Nam including some hunker-in-the-bunker time with live ammo close at hand. There were gays in every one of my units, and we knew, and they knew we knew. They were still my friends, and it just never was an issue.

    The results of this survey were absolutely unsurprising to me, and reflected my own experience. That said, if gays come out in the Marines, they will probably be dead Marines.

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