Dan Choi Airs Unhappiness with Obama Over 'DADT', Says He'd Look for a Republican to Support: VIDEO
Lt. Dan Choi made an appearance on CNN's In the Arena on Friday to discuss the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and aired his unhappiness with Obama's process in repealing the measure, going so far as to say he'd look for a Republican to support in the next election.
Said Choi:
"Why should I endorse President Obama? Listen, I'm not vindictive. I'm not vengeful. If I was vindictive, then I would say, President Obama if you want my endorsement, then I'll just have a study about that. We'll have a comprehensive review working group. And then we'll get you fired. And then we'll start to talk to other people and I'll have a platform for everybody else to hate on you."
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
In related news, the Obama administration is still trying to get Choi to pay for his own 'DADT' discharge.
Sounds vindictive and vengeful to me.
I hope he finds a Republican who will listen to him as much as President Obama has, even if the result he was hoping for didn't happen the way he wanted.
Posted by: Jay | Jul 25, 2011 12:32:07 PM
Sorry Dan. When the Texas Republican platform explicity wants to re-criminalize by sexual identity and orientation, they can all suck whale farts.
Posted by: Mykelb | Jul 25, 2011 12:35:02 PM
Most drama queens are never satisfied, they always crave more drama. Sister Choi here needs to get over herself. And I never talk/write in this manner, but it applies to her!
Posted by: Derek Pearce | Jul 25, 2011 12:36:12 PM
OhPlease - Sit home and not vote at all? Oh, that should work well for us. It's simply a shame that McCain/Palin lost. Just think where we might be today!
Posted by: Married in MA | Jul 25, 2011 12:37:25 PM
If the Obama administration is STILL trying to get Choi to pay for his own DADT discharge then I regard Obama's behaviour as monstrous, vicious and cruel. Why on EARTH would Choi support Obama, when Obama behaves in such a disgusting, shameful, vengeful way?
Posted by: SteveC | Jul 25, 2011 12:37:53 PM
Baby needs his blankey. Choi went on national television and announced he was gay. DADT--as wrong as it is--was military policy at the time. His discharge was inevitable. As is his second discharge if he returns to active duty. This man's incapable of following policy.
Posted by: Christopher | Jul 25, 2011 12:38:17 PM
Media whore!
Posted by: John | Jul 25, 2011 12:42:24 PM
Our community needs leaders, role models, and heros. Dan Choi is none of these. As soon as we stop paying attention to him, he will disappear.
Posted by: Asher | Jul 25, 2011 12:48:40 PM
@Vince
Please reference how, exactly, Obama was dragged kicking and screaming to get to this point. This is a false perception of what has actually happened, and I view that perspective as out of whack as Choi's. He didn't just magically decide to repeal last year because he's been getting pressure! Any vote that has passed in congress has had tons of work behind the scenes before we even see it break the light of day. This is why your argument that Obama was unwilling to do anything doesn't make any sense. I understand frustration as well, but disappointment comes from YOUR perception, not necessarily what is actually happening. I'm not disappointed in the slightest. I wanted it to happen faster, but I also know that in the 235 year history of this country, this is the fastest and only action ever taken by a president in favor of gay rights, ever. EVER.
Posted by: jjasonham | Jul 25, 2011 1:03:18 PM
Dan Choi has never been in this for anybody but himself. Last summer I spoke to Mike Almy of the Servicemen's Defense League (he was the one who escorted Gaga at the MTV award) and he told me that they HATE Dan Choi, that he gets in the way of everything they're trying to do because he's a media wh*re. They were relieved when he was hospitalized because then his public image suffered and nobody took him seriously anymore.
Posted by: Jonathan | Jul 25, 2011 1:06:28 PM
Obama could pardon Dan and the others arrested for chaining themselves to the White House fence. Otherwise, DADT will be a non-issue by Nov 2012.
Posted by: anon | Jul 25, 2011 1:07:56 PM
This guy is making a career out of media attention.
Obama is repealing don't ask don't tell. Is the process messy? yes. Have there been compromises? Sure. But at the end of the day, dadt is repealed.
And the idiot thinks a republican is going to help him? Why not look for a nazi to hold a seder. Sheesh.
Posted by: dms | Jul 25, 2011 1:12:31 PM
Dan is patently mentally ill.
He needs help and those who encouraged him in his quest for poster boy status have a moral obligation to help him.
He is going over the edge.
Cut him off from paid speaking engagements. Stop giving him the bully pulpit (I see him more on Towleroad than anywhere else).
Posted by: JoshG | Jul 25, 2011 1:15:54 PM
Didn't they just REPEAL DADT? Didn't OBAMA just push it through? What the heck is this dude's damage? EPIC FAIL
Posted by: Mr. Magoo | Jul 25, 2011 1:20:45 PM
I always knew Dan Choi was a Republican. His irrational attacks on Obama during the legislative vote to repeal DADT while completely ignoring the overwhelming bigotry from the GOP spoke volumes.
Dan Choi refused to criticize any GOP senator, the main reason for the delay in passage of a repeal bill.
Now that DADT is history (only because Obama is president) Choi still has to find a microphone to whine and moan about the process to extend his 15 minutes. The guy is deluded!
Posted by: NY2.0 | Jul 25, 2011 1:22:48 PM
Dan Choi is so 6 months ago. I used to have so much respect for this guy, but now he is just getting on my nerves. He comes off as thinking he's smarter than everyone else. Obama has been the most supportive politician Gqay America has ever had. Get over it already! We now need full equality in every corner of this country, not just the progressive states!
Posted by: Mike | Jul 25, 2011 1:26:56 PM
Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson are the only two Republican candidates who seem to me to have the gravitas and intelligence to be presidential material. How they stand on LGBT rights I don't know because I would never consider voting Repug. Point being these two are polling low and their competition is an amazing crew of grifters and tin-hatters.
Some people can't get past their upbringing--never deal with the cognitive dissonance thingie. I think that's Choi--Fundamentalist, and choosing to make his career (impressively) in the military. I do stereotype these groups of people. I'm an ex-Episcopalian atheist and anti-militarist. Frankly I wonder if Choi or those GOProud folks could stand Gays if they weren't gay themselves, or had a gay daughter like Cheney.
I think Obama has done well, but not well enough on LBGT issues, but miserably on those other issues that a leftist Dem like me is concerned about. If I voted on his LGBT record I would vote for Obama. But that's not enough. I guess I'm writing in Bernie Sandeers or Kucinich. Voting pragmatically for the most likely to win just allows the party to drift further to the right and into the hands of the oligarchs.
Whew. Time for my nap.
Posted by: Gary | Jul 25, 2011 1:29:54 PM
@jjasonham,
You are obviously a loyal supporter Obama. You and others on this site seem to have a short memory as to how we finally arrived at this point. There was more than a little anecdotal evidence that Obama had to be coerced into finally getting on board with the agreement that was worked out at the eleventh hour. But even if this were not so, why would he wait until the very last minute? Do you realize that the repeal of DADT could've been lost indefinitely if it wasn't passed at the very last minute of the last Congress? That with the Republicans in charge in the House, we would have had a long wait for another chance? Why did Obama wait so long? Why did he take such a chance. Even the military survey that he insisted was necessary before the repeal of the law - why did he wait until he was in office a year before instituting it? Because it wasn't a priority with him!
But this isn't the only issue many of us have had an argument with Obama on. He has simply not been the progressive leader we were promised during the campaign. On almost every issue he has compromised, sold out or reversed course. The continued war in Afghanistan, the failure to prosecute the Bush administration for its many crimes, the half-hearted approach to policing Wall Street - speaking of which, the desertion of Elizabeth Warren as Consumer Advocate. And I don't have a good feeling about how this debt crisis is going to end!
He's just not a fighter. Especially not in the face of reelection. And no amount of apologists will convince me otherwise.
But aside from that, I still don't understand the hostility toward Dan Choi. If he had kept silent as so many gay leaders were, we might still have DADT. I've just looked at the full interview with Dan Choi. There is not evidence that this man is insane or mentally ill. And yet, many of you would like to portray as him as such. Bitter, defensive, disillusioned, yes, but why shouldn't he be? He was kicked out of the military despite his impeccable record, for bravely coming forward and challenging the military establishment. The government is following through on prosectuting him for doing what Martin Luther King did on a regular basis. And on top of that they're trying to get money out of him. This all strikes me as a campaign by the Obama administration to discredit a brave civil rights advocate who had no stomach for the slow-walking routine of the establishment.
Let's face it, Dan Choi kept Obama honest. And he deserves credit for that!
Posted by: Vince | Jul 25, 2011 1:45:34 PM
Saying "Obama hasn't moved fast enough on gay rights, so I'm going to vote for a Republican" is like saying, "hmm, I have a hangnail, so I'm going to chop off my finger."
Posted by: Thomasina | Jul 25, 2011 1:56:08 PM
Sounds like Dan has a bit of a personal beef at this point with the Obama administration regarding his political action at the WH and discharge. OK, that's understandable, but voting for a Republican? Well, there is Fred Karger I suppose...one doesn't have to vote for one of the top candidates. But it's obviously said more to shock people against Obama than anything else.
Posted by: Bruno | Jul 25, 2011 2:01:53 PM
"He'd Look for a Republican to Support" - Are you stupid? You sound like a child that's mad at your parents "well, then I'm going to run away! Humpf!" Running away is a far worse choice than working with your parents to get to a happy medium... just like dealing with the current administration vs Republicnts. If Senator McCain was our president do you believe we would have gotten this far with our rights? Give me AFB.
Posted by: Hollywood, CA | Jul 25, 2011 2:02:48 PM
Just for the record, when people say "I'm not vindictive....I'm not vengeful," they're vindictive and vengeful.
Posted by: Andy Panda | Jul 25, 2011 2:03:55 PM
Having the first president to be born to parents whose own marriage was illegal in several states at the time of his birth acknowledge that all human beings are equal is NOT too much to ask.
As long as "god is in the mix" and Rick Warren is kicking off his administration and Donnie whathisname is preaching the anti-gay gospel at his fundraisers and Obama is thinking that our humanity is a political football that he can lie about one way or another for two decades depending upon his percieved needs at the moment, I'm not supporting this lying corporate tool who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into repealing DADT -- and then has successfully dragged it out for almost a year after it was "repealed"!
I'll consider supporting any candidate who doesn't think I'm on an evolutionary rung or two beneath them, which, right now, rules out supporting Barack Hussein Obama.
But Dan Choi is still an un-likeable nutjob.
Posted by: ohplease | Jul 25, 2011 2:04:22 PM
I love Dan Choi, but he needs help bad and now.
Read his twitter feed - he's lost the ability to engage in actual argument, and found the ability to call people stupid without thinking twice.
So disappointing.
Posted by: MammaBear | Jul 25, 2011 2:11:29 PM
I have the highest respect for Dan Choi's service to his country. But he's really gone off the deep end and needs a period of rest away from the spotlight. I wrote this last November and I think it applies now as much as then.
http://hankdrake.blogspot.com/2010/11/case-for-nuance.html
Posted by: Hank | Jul 25, 2011 2:25:07 PM