Movement on "Don't Ask Don't Tell"?

I'm not sure there are enough signs yet to claim victory, but... The Hill newspaper has strung together a number of sources suggesting that we may finally be moving ahead. If it is true that folks in the House and Senate are planning on pushing for DADT to be repealed early next year, then someone on the Hill, and in the White House, had better come up with a media, grassroots and lobbying strategy fast. Because no one in town who Joe and I know, and we know a lot of people, have heard anything at all about a strategy.

I bring this up because, as I've mentioned numerous times before, you can't just wake up one day and decide that today is the day you're going to repeal DADT. You not only need a good media, lobbying and grassroots strategy, but you need to start implementing it long before the day of the vote. It's why political campaigns don't wait until a month before the election before they start campaigning. It can take months, if not years, to align everything perfectly so that you can win a vote in Congress. Look at the health care debate. One of the problems was that the Obama administration sat out too long, and didn't really get involved publicly until September, just a month ago. Effective legislating on potentially difficult issues just does not work that. It's a long hard slog, and you need to marshall all of your resources early on, including, in this case, the gay (and straight) blogosphere (and I think we've proven our ability to exert significant influence on these issues). That is not yet happening. It had better soon. Or we risk losing.

Again, I hope this is a good sign, and if the White House and Congress are serious about moving ahead next year to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, then God Bless them, and we'll be backing them up. But they need to come up with a real and comprehensive strategy, and start implementing it now. And so far, we haven't seen any signs that there is one.