UPDATE: Or not.
Following an open challenge to the President by the lead group taking on the military's anti-gay ban, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, we're finally hearing some details today of progress, albeit it small, regarding the White House's promised repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.
We reported earlier today that SLDN was calling on the President to lead, and to put the DADT repeal in this year's budget submitted to Congress in early February. While we still have no news about whether the White House plans to include DADT repeal in its budget, there does appear to be some movement. From Sam Stein at Huff Post:
Congressional negotiators and White House officials are moving forward with plans to add the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell to the upcoming defense authorization bill, Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post.A few points:
In Congress, members are being whipped to ensure that the votes will be there for passage, should the legislation be placed in the bill. At this juncture, aides say, the prospects look good. Meanwhile, a source close to the White House says the president has instructed the Defense Department that he believes the repeal of DADT should be placed in the authorization bill.
However, disagreements could emerge when it comes to crafting the actual legislative language, over which Defense Secretary Robert Gates will wield his influence. And at this juncture, few of the offices working on the issue said they were willing to take passage as a fait accompli.
1. There are no administration sources in this story. Only an anonymous source "close to the White House." That's not Sam Stein's fault. The White House hasn't exactly been forthcoming about its open support for keeping its major campaign promises to the gay community (repeal of DADT and DOMA, and passage of ENDA). The anonymous source close to the White House could simply be a press secretary at the Human Rights Campaign. And while we like our friends who are press secretaries at HRC, they're not the same as a senior administration official, when it comes to what the administration is truly planning to do. And, as the White House has told us time and again, do not trust anonymous sources telling you what the administration is really up to. We need to hear from a White House or Pentagon official, by name, publicly, that they are proceeding with the repeal of DADT this year.
2. When the Commander in Chief talks to his subordinates at the Pentagon, he should be directing them what to do, not telling them "what he believes." Again, if we had administration sources, on the record, by name, we'd know if the President told the Pentagon what to do, or whether he's simply being subordinate to his own subordinates.
3. Other than the timing of the repeal - is it immediate, is it gradual? - it's not terribly clear what "details" one needs to work out of a full repeal of legislation, which is what the President has promised repeatedly. Both Joe and I read this paragraph and thought it sounded as if it leaves wiggle room for a "half a loaf" solution - e.g., only repeal part of the ban for some troops, or perhaps segregate gay troops, which was an option floated by an administration official several months ago. All of those "separate but equal" options would be the equivalent of designating gay and lesbian troops "3/5ths a soldier."
4. While it's not "required" that the President include DADT repeal in his budget in order for the repeal to finally come to pass, it sure helps. And it's a clear sign of where the White House stands on this issue. If the White House comes out publicly and puts DADT repeal in its budget submitted to Congress at the beginning of February, as SLDN has requested, it's a clear statement of purpose was to what the President wants. Currently, it's not that clear what the White House wants on anything, gay or otherwise. And leaving DADT repeal out of the budget would only be one more sign that the White House isn't sure what it wants.
5. There's a reason that SLDN launched a campaign against the President and Congress this morning, and it's not that they're out of the loop, and simply don't know the wizard's secret plan. They're not out of the loop. They're our lead group on this issue. And they have been for 17 years. If SLDN isn't aware of the White House's grand plan for proceeding on its promise to repeal DADT, then that means the grand plan doesn't exist. (I shudder to think that the White House actually has a plan, and is refusing to even bring in the lead gay group on the issue.)
6. And that leads me to my final point, which I've made many times before. It's all well and good "if" the White House is serious about trying to repeal DADT in three months. But rather than being silent about it, and not telling SLDN what's it doing, not working with the grassroots, the Netroots, the gay civil rights organizations beyond SLDN, and our straight allies - rather than all of that, the White House and Congress should have already come up with a grassroots, lobbying, and media strategy to support the DADT repeal effort. And that strategy should already be being implemented.
Let me say, in response to the oft-used White House talking point that all of of us complaining about the administration not having a strategy, that we are simply bloggers in our pajamas who have no idea what it takes to get legislation passed in Washington. I can't speak for everyone, but I've written and passed legislation in the Congress. I've negotiated deals in conference committees. I've worked in the non-profit sector and helped get $5bn amendments, and tens of billions of dollars worth of new progressive federal programs, passed by the Congress and enacted into law.
And I got my start on gay civil rights working inside Senator Kennedy's office in 1993 on the effort to lift the ban, on ENDA, on AIDS funding, and much more. I've seen how legislative lions get gay legislation passed. And this is not it.
I fear the strategy doesn't exist. Or if it does exist, it's buried in the bowels of the White House, which is just as good as not existing. You don't get legislation passed in this town by acting like a hermit, keeping quiet and waiting till the last minute to spring forth and save the day like some kind of cartoon hero. That works on the funny pages, it's less funny in real life when you're dealing with our civil rights. This is what the White House did on health care reform, they refused to engage publicly on the specifics, and refused to seriously lobby Congress and sell the public. We cannot make the same mistakes again on the repeal of DADT. We need to keep building public support, lobbying Congress, and working the media. All of that is happening in a vacuum right now, without direction, because the White House isn't even letting anyone know if and when the issue will come up, let alone what the united strategy is to get this thing passed.
And finally, to the degree the White House is afraid of having it be 1993 all over again, they'd best remember the most important lesson of Bill Clinton's fateful experience with DADT in that first month of his administration. Don't make promises that you're not prepared to push and defend. Bill Clinton made a wonderful promise to lift the ban, and once he became president, and the ban became the first issue on his plate, he didn't know what to do, and his leaderlessness on the issue turned it into a huge fiasco. He was taken advantage of, emasculated in fact, by his own Pentagon, and by opposition in Congress. And he didn't fight back against either. Sound familiar?
It's great to hear from third party sources that maybe something will happen in a few months. But the White House had better have a chat with someone who understands how legislation is actually passed in this town, and come up with and implement a full-blown strategy soon, because let me tell you, if they botch DADT, if we lose on the repeal effort, or just as bad, get handed some bigoted "separate but equal" half a loaf, it's not going to be 1993 all over again. It's going to be 1994.
