Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla points out that former governor and potential presidential contender Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) has moved to the right of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on his support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, telling anti-gay radio host Bryan Fischer yesterday that he would support reinstating the ban:
FISCHER: One last question, got about forty five seconds left, put you on the hot seat one more time: we just saw the ban on homosexual service in the military repealed, overturned. Conservatives will be working over the next couple of years to see that that ban is reinstated. If you become president in 2012, will you work to reinstate the prohibition on open homosexual service in the military? Would you sign such a prohibition if it got to your desk?
PAWLENTY: Bryan, I have been a public and repeat supporter of maintaining Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but if you look at how the combat commanders and the combat units feel about it, the results of those kinds of surveys were different than the ones that were mostly reported in the newspaper and that is something I think we need to pay attention to. But I have been a public supporter of maintaining Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and I would support reinstating it as well.
Watch it (starting 4:05):
Pawlenty’s position is surprising since even McCain — who led the Republican opposition to lifting the ban in the Senate — has said he would support implementation of repeal since it’s now the law of the land. “I think I have to do everything I can to make sure that the impact on the morale, retention, recruitment and battle effectiveness of the military is minimized as much as possible,” McCain said on Fox Business. “It is a law and I have to do whatever I can to help the men and women who are serving, particularly in combat, cope with this new situation. I will do everything I can to make it work.”
It’s also unclear how reinstating the policy would work operationally. Bringing back the policy would require gay servicemembers who come out after repeal is certified to suddenly go back into the closet or face discharge. Straight soldiers would also have to pretend they did not know about the sexual orientation of formerly-out gay members.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — who previously said that he was open to considering DADT repeal if the military carefully studied the consequences of such a policy change — is nevertheless vocally opposed to lifting the ban after the military released its study indicating support for repeal. From the very first DADT hearing in February 2010 to today’s session, McCain has grumpily refused to consider the views of the witnesses before him. This morning — after reviewing the overwhelming positive DADT report and listening to the pleas of the leaders to end the policy in the lame duck session — McCain went further, openly implying that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen was not living up to the expectations of leadership because he did not ask the troops if they favored repealing the policy. Watch it:
The Wonk Room points out that all of the leaders in front of the commission — Mullen, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Working Group chairmen Defense Department General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson and Army Gen. Carter F. Ham — disagreed with McCain’s approach of polling the troops about the policy.
Senator John McCain's remarks to two reporters after he had voted to block the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on Tuesday have already drawn widespread attention for their rambling and almost incoherent nature.
Now an officer who says he was discharged from the Air Force even though he was never asked and never told is suggesting that McCain may have been "deliberately deceptive" when he insisted that the military is "not seeking out people who are gay."
"Regulations are we do not go out and seek to find out someone's sexual orientation," McCain asserted flatly. "I know the military very well and I know what's being done, and what is being done is that they're not seeking out people who are gay. And I don't care what you say. I know it's a fact. I don't care what you say."
As the reporters insisted that there are "documented cases" of soldiers whose private emails were searched, McCain simply repeated over and over, "It is not the policy, it is not the policy, it is not the policy. It's not the policy. It's not the policy. It's not the policy."
Columnist Andrew Sullivan was quick to describe McCain as "flat out wrong" when he denied that the military "actively seeks out gay people in order persecute and expel them."
Sullivan quoted from Nathaniel Frank's book, Unfriendly Fire, which noted that "The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a watchdog and legal aid organization that has monitored the effects of the policy since its inception, reported 340 command violations (perpetrated by the military) in the first year alone, including fifteen actual or attempted “witch hunts” and ten death threats to service members for perceived homosexuality. For the first three years, SLDN documented 1146 violations, with the number increasing each of those years. The abuses of 'don’t ask' have ranged from the purposeful to the neglectful to the vicious."
Major Mike Almy, whose name had been mentioned by the reporters interviewing McCain as an example of someone whose private emails had been read by the military, appeared with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday evening to say that he was "shocked" by McCain's denials.
"I was literally quite stunned when I first heard it," he told Maddow. "As you know, I testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March and told my story. Senator McCain was there. He sat twenty feet away from me and he listened to every word of my testimony."
"For him to make that statement today, that the military does not search private emails," Almy continued, "tells me that he either didn't listen to my testimony this past March, he forgot what I said, or he's being deliberately deceptive with the American public about the true nature of Don't Ask Don't Tell and using partisan politics over the interests of national security."
"The simple truth is the Air Force searched my private emails in 2005 in Iraq," Almy asserted. "During the height of the insurgency, they launched an investigation ... solely to determine if I had violated Don't Ask Don't Tell and to find whatever evidence they could use against me. And those emails, searched in Iraq, were the sole basis of my discharge from the Air Force."
According to Servicemembers United, "Mike Almy was a distinguished Air Force cadet who came from a long line of military service. When he was discharged in 2006 he had attained the rank of Major, was named one of the top officers in his career field in the Air Force, and was in charge of leading 200 airmen in Iraq. None of this mattered however when his emails were illegally read and he was relieved of his duties after he refused to make a statement about his sexuality without the presence of his lawyers. His replacement was a junior officer with very little leadership experience."
Almy explained in an open letter to President Obama last spring, "In the stress of a war zone, the Air Force authorized us to use our work email accounts for 'personal or morale purposes' because private email accounts were blocked for security. Shortly after I left Iraq -- during a routine search of my computer files -- someone found that my 'morale' was supported by the person I loved -- a man. ... I was relieved of my duties, my security clearance was suspended. ... I was given a police escort off the base as if I were a common criminal or a threat to national security. The severance pay I received was half of what it would have been had I been separated for any other reason."
Despite the way he was treated, Almy told the president, "If you end 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' (DADT), I’d re-enlist the day you sign repeal into law."
Ed O'Keefe at the Washington Post, who described McCain as "scolding" the reporters, noted that McCain could be considered half right. "So-called "third-party outings" were banned earlier this year by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates," he wrote, "unless they're instituted by top military brass, so McCain's statements are only kind of correct that the military does not currently 'seek out' gay troops."
But those kind of fine distinctions are not likely to satisfy Major Almy. "I'm very angry at his statement today," he told Maddow in conclusion. "I would love to visit Senator McCain in person. I would love to shake his hand and I would love him to look me directly in the eye and tell me that the military does not search private emails. Because I know for a fact that that's not true."
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Sept. 21, 2010.
By Alex Seitz-Wald
When Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) announced that he would leave the Republican party to run for the Senate as an independent, he indicated that he would be more free to support “ideas that I believe are good ideas for the people,” instead of just following “one club’s decision.” Indeed, after long supporting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Crist has announced that he is now in favor of the new comprise legislation, which would repeal the policy but allow the Pentagon to complete its study before the repeal is implemented. In a statement, Crist said the compromise will ensure that the new policy is “what is best for our military“:
“Ultimately, as in all military matters I defer to the Pentagon and to the Generals and what the Senate is doing today is giving them the ultimate authority to do what is best for our military. So, I would be inclined to support the Senate’s action on this.“
Crist has maintained a traditionally conservative record on LGBT issues, though there is some evidence to suggest he may adopt a more progressive stance now that he has been liberated from the Republican Party. He has said he is “fine” with civil unions, and in 2007, he asked the GOP to stop spending money promoting “a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Florida” in 2007.
M.C.L Comment: See what happens when you stop pandering to the nuts on the right..
The right has been girding for a fight to defend the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy after the White House and some members of Congress reached an agreement this week that will likely repeal it. House Republicans are “preparing to mount a vigorous defense” of the policy, Sen. John McCain is threatening a filibuster, and right-wing Christian groups are pressuring conservative lawmakers to toe the party line.
Today, right-wing hate-monger Cliff Kincaid’s group America’s Survival launched a repulsive fear campaign against repeal, warning that “disease-tainted gay blood threatens our troops.” The group’s abhorrent video — and the 60 page report that accompanies it — present ludicrous stereotypes of gay men and women, going so far as to claim that “open and active homosexuals into the U.S. military could very well result in the spreading of deadly HIV-tainted blood throughout the ranks”:
Of course, all would-be soldiers undergo mandatory HIV screening and are not allowed to serve if they are found to be positive. Kincaid mentions this, but as Joe.My.God noted, the press release “cites the singular example of an HIV-positive soldier infecting a 17 year-old male he met in a chat room. Because if it happened ONCE out of all those millions of soldiers…”
Kincaid goes on to warn that repealing DADT will lead to “transgendered individuals who want to dress up as members of the opposite sex and would cry ‘discrimination’ if they are not allowed to do so.” Ignoring the fact that service members of both genders often wear identical uniforms, Kincaid’s only example of this allegedly real threat is a fictional character from the TV show MASH.
TPM notes that, in a separate bit of right-wing hate mongering, the Family Research Council is warning that repealing DADT “will turn the U.S. military into a terrifying free-rape zone” where straight service members “will be fellated in their sleep against their will” and commanders are powerless to resist.
After President Obama declared in his State of the Union address last week that he would “work with Congress and our military to finally repeal” the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy “this year,” conservatives predictably balked at the idea. “With all due respect to his sincerely held if abstractly formed views on this subject, it would be reckless to require the military to carry out a major sociological change, one contrary to the preferences of a large majority of its members, as it fights two wars,” wrote the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol.
With the push for overturning DADT gaining momentum and the support of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, conservative fearmongering about the potential effects of repeal have gone into overdrive with suggestions that the policy change would “mortally” damage the all-volunteer military. During a hearing with Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates today, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) warned that allowing “the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts” would pave the way for allowing “alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art” in the military. On CNN today, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins suggested it could lead to the re-institution of the draft:
PERKINS: Let’s go back to the Military Times in 2008 had a poll of active duty military members. Fifty-eight percent said they were opposed to overturning this policy. And many have said that this will cause them to reconsider whether or not they will stay in the military. And it will have an impact upon recruiting. I mean this is an issue of retention and recruitment for the military and it ultimately could lead back to the imposition of a draft in order to fill the numbers and quotas in the military.
Perkins’ draft claim was echoed in a statement today by Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, who also suggested that repealing DADT could cause earthquakes and other natural disasters. Watch it:
Dr. Nathaniel Frank responded to Perkins’ “fear tactics” about military retention — a claim that relies on a “unscientific, self-selective” survey by Military Times of its subscribers, not a random sample of active duty soldiers — by pointing out that “polls show in Canada and Britain that when they asked service members if they would, if they wanted to serve with gays, two-thirds of them refused. Absolutely refused. But when they actually lifted the bans anyway, about 2 people, 2 people, not the thousands predicted by the polls actually left.”
Nearly 14,000 gay and lesbian service men and women have been discharged from military service since 1993. Additionally, a 2007 study by the Williams Institute found that DADT hurts retention as “an estimated 4,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual military personnel” per year since 1994 “would have been retained if they could have been more open about their sexual orientation.”
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