DADT

Wayne Besen has joined the "hold back on repeal" chorus, and, like the other singers in the choir, his reasoning doesn't make sense to me.

Unfortunately, I left off my short list overturning the ban on gays in the military. I think we should steer clear of this issue until after the presidential elections. This topic is too prone to demagoguery with conservatives, once again, descending into submarine barracks. If a Democrat wins the presidency and the party holds both branches of Congress, this would be a good issue for 2009.

I'll simply repeat what I said earlier: repeal of DADT is a no-brainer. It has popular support, including growing support among new recruits; it has demonstrably cost us manpower in critial areas and consequently weakened our military; it is unfair, which has a certain basic appeal to Americans anyway just as a general principle; and it's an easy win. If Bush vetoes it, he looks like a loser.

The idea that the idea is "too prone to demagoguery" is another way of saying that not only the Democrats but the gay "leadership" has no balls. Being a somewhat confrontational personality, my own take is that Clinton was too willing to be reasonable. I would have simply announced to the Joint Chiefs that resignations would be expected on my desk by 5 pm, ordered them not to speak to Congress about the issue, on pain of court martial, and let the chips fall where they might. The end result couldn't possibly have been worse.