McCain Planning Major Filibuster of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in Senate

Desperate to hold on to his Senate site, John McCain is aligning himself with the right-wing fringe and hate groups we posted about yesterday and is planning a filibuster of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal bill in the Senate.

Keith Olbermann discussed some of the haters and McCain with Dan Savage last night.

Senator Carl Levin, the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is planning an 11:30 am conference call to discuss the DADT measure, FOX News reports.

Watch Olbermann, AFTER THE JUMP...

Paper: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Vote This Week 'Too Close to Call'

This is "do or die" week for repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Washington Post weighs in on where we're at:

The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to vote by the end of the week on an amendment to the annual defense spending bill that would end "don't ask, don't tell," which Congress passed in 1993. Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) favors a repeal, but it is unclear whether he has enough votes, with six senators on the panel considered undecided, legislative sources said.

The House is expected to vote on a similar measure this week, based on a repeal proposal sponsored by Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-Pa.), an Iraq war veteran. The House Armed Services Committee declined to act on Murphy's bill in passing its version of the defense spending measure last week, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has told gay advocacy groups that she will allow a floor vote if there is enough support in favor of a repeal.

"This is our 'all hands on deck' moment," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which represents gays who have been drummed out of the armed forces. "For repeal to succeed, it is critical that all proponents for full repeal weigh in now, including the White House. We are only a few days away from this historic vote."

Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs John Shalikashvili wrote an editorial in Saturday's Washington Post advising Congress to repeal DADT now, and let the Pentagon act later.

Writes Shalikashvili: "'Don't ask, don't tell' is both a federal law and a Pentagon policy. The law ties the military's hands on this issue. If Congress fails to repeal it, the Pentagon's study process will be compromised because the Defense Department will not have the authority to implement its own recommendations. Fortunately, there is an option that fully respects the secretary's request to Congress while moving forward on a reasonable timetable. Congress could repeal the federal statute and return authority to the military to set rules about gay troops, just as the armed services had before "don't ask, don't tell" became law in 1993."

A NYT editorial on Friday offered similar advice.

DADT Repeal Efforts Continue Despite Military Objections

The optimistic news on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", from Kerry Eleveld at The Advocate:

"Alex Nicholson, executive director of gay veterans group Servicemembers United, said because of the legislative options he was more optimistic about the chances for repeal than he had been in recent months. 'For the first time in a long time I think that we have a realistic, politically viable path to repeal right now,' he said. 'It will depend on what kind of buy-in we get from key members on the committee and from the White House.' Despite Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urging Congress not to vote on repeal this year, Levin has has continued to push forward with the effort. 'The president says he wants to repeal ‘Don’t ask.’ Why shouldn’t we repeal it?' Levin told Congressional Quarterly earlier this week. Though Gates’s objections have posed a challenge to swaying a handful of legislators on the committee, one person with knowledge of the matter said repeal supporters were on the verge of securing the final votes. 'We’re very close — within one or two votes — and we feel optimistic about that,' said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."

Levin has been characterized as "a hero" in efforts to keep repeal alive.

And the infuriating news (we've been strung along for months, as many suspected, that there was any support for repeal this year from the White House despite Obama's State of the Union promise):

"Throughout the efforts, the White House has continued to remain in the background. A second source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the White House was partially in a bind based on an agreement White House officials had made with Defense Department officials earlier this year to let the Pentagon’s working group study reach completion before pushing for a repeal vote. The source, who had knowledge of the meeting, said discussions around “the process” began in December and were finalized in January, when prospects for the administration’s main agenda items, such as health care reform, were still looking grim. The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this article."

Levin: DADT Repeal Will Go in Defense Bill if Votes are There

Today was the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" lobby day on Capitol hill. Hundreds of gay and lesbian veterans lobbied lawmakers to repeal the ban. Here's a photo Senator Joe Lieberman tweeted of himself with HRC President Joe Solmonese and a group of veterans.

Solmonese criticized the President today for his inaction:

"President Barack Obama promised in his State of the Union address that he would work with Congress and the Pentagon to repeal DADT this year. The nation’s top two defense officials spoke in favor of repeal just a few weeks later. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made clear that a new department study would look into how, not if, the repeal process could be implemented. But despite all this, the path to repeal has become cluttered in ways that only Washingtonians could rationalize. At the core of this delay seems to be a desire by the Pentagon to kick the can down the road and stop a vote on the issue this year. As Gates asserted 11 days ago in a letter to the House Armed Services Committee, nothing should be done until the implementation study is complete in December. The White House’s silence is providing oxygen to those who believe that Congress should not act this year."

A new GALLUP poll says 70% of Americans approve of allowing gays to serve openly in the military: "Included in the majority are 60 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of weekly churchgoers and strong majorities of liberals and moderates."

Senator Carl Levin said today that, if the votes are there, he's prepared to include repeal of DADT in the Defense Authorization bill, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' letter of last Friday:

"Gates, however, has told Congress that he would 'strongly oppose' legislating repeal before a Department of Defense review is finished in December. That won't stop Levin, who said today that he'll put repeal in the authorization bill anyway, if he can get the votes for it. He said he's not sure if the votes are there. Even so, he said repeal wouldn't go into effect until after the review is finished. 'What we ought to do is repeal it but make the effective date after the report,' Levin said today, according to Roll Call."

Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade talked to several of the veterans who lobbied at the White House yesterday.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Air Force Secretary Supports Repeal of DADT

Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley was questioned by Jo Lieberman and Carl Levin during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill today. Donley was asked by Levin his personal opinion on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Air Force's highest ranking civilian gave a gave very surprising and very direct response. He said:

“I support the president’s efforts to change the policy and change the law in this area.” Donley continued and had the following to say about dismissal cases that had passed by his desk in the past: “My experience is that these cases and that the issue of good order and discipline and unit cohesion, is that it does not depend on gender or orientation – it depends on conduct."

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz was also questioned but he had something quite different to say. According to Schwartz, “acting (to repeal DADT) now is premature.”

Situation Normal on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal: All F-ed Up

Is this the "clear path to repeal" the Human Rights Campaign keeps assuring us is there? 

Senator Carl Levin is putting the focus on a moratorium on gay troop discharges while expressing doubts that a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will happen this year.

Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly reports:

When asked about equality advocates' concern that a moratorium on enforcement of the military's ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy would put off a vote on repealing policy this year, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said on Thursday, ''That's not my concern. My concern would be that the vote on ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' gets defeated.''

When asked if that meant the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman had concerns that such a vote would be defeated this year, Levin's response was blunt: 

 ''Yeah, darn right I do.''

Geidner adds: "Reflecting on the testimony heard before his committee and the House Armed Services Committee this week, Levin said, ''You've got an assessment under way, you've got a couple of service chiefs opposed to it maybe altogether, one of them even suggesting he opposes it and doesn't even favor the assessment.' Noting those issues, Levin told reporters, 'I think there would be great difficulty in succeeding in a repeal vote. I don't favor going to a vote if it's going to be defeated. I think it would be a setback for those of us who think that the program should be repealed.'"

Writes Chris Johnson at DC Agenda:

"Fearing a lack of votes, Levin said he’s pushing for a legislative moratorium. The senator noted that such a measure would be 'logical' because it doesn’t predetermine the outcome of the Pentagon study currently underway. 'Once the commander-in-chief says people shouldn’t be discharged for simply being gay, I think there’s real dilemma,' he said. 'And when we think about that dilemma … hopefully, we’ll lead people to see that the moratorium is an attractive position because it doesn’t prejudge the outcome.' Levin said he wants a legal opinion of the validity of a moratorium as well as what will happen with pending discharges as the Pentagon completes its review."

Levin's suggestion for a moratorium comes on the heels of a warning from Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell that taking action to repeal the ban (i.e. Joe Lieberman's repeal legislation) before the "military study" is complete is "putting the cart before the horse." 

BLOGGERS RESPOND

Pam Spaulding has had it: "I'm tired of this sh*t. Name some names -- who up there on the Hill is waffling on repeal? This pathetic jiu-jitsu over moving on this is absolutely enraging and ridiculous at this point."

Mixner warns: "There are a number of options but all of them require the Democratic leadership to commit to the repeal of this apartheid-type law now. If we allow the military leaders to dictate a year study we could be facing a Republican controlled Congress after this year's elections. No matter what the study says at the end, do you really believe that DADT will be repealed by a Republican controlled Congress? The military leaders know that this issue will go away if they can just out wait the elections."

John Aravosis at Americablog calls the stalling "political homophobia".

HEARINGS YESTERDAY

 Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, spoke to the Palm Center's Nathaniel Frank about reservations he has with the plan to poll U.S. troops about the policy.

Said Roughead, who testified in Senate hearings yesterday: "We've never assessed the force because it is not our practice to go within our military and poll our force to determine if they like the laws of the land or not. I mean, that gets you into very difficult regime, so now that...Now that the President has signaled his intent and that the Secretary of Defense has said that we'll go through an assessment process and my point is that we have to assess this force."

Listen to the audio here.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus also testified. He favors repeal: “I think it’s important to remember that we have gays in the military right now. It’s only a question of whether they can serve openly or not, and I think the chairman of the joint chiefs set out that case pretty well. Next, I think that it’s important to distinguish between orientation and conduct. We have lots of rules in the military, in the Navy and Marine Corps, about conduct and heterosexual conduct, that we enforce very stringently and very specifically. And I think that we’ve got to be careful to separate orientation, which is what we’re talking about, and conduct.”

Also, in Senate hearings yesterday, the commandant of the Marine Corps expressed concerns about the repeal:

"Gen. James T. Conway, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the policy known as 'don't ask, don't tell' should be left alone. 'I think the current policy works,' he said. 'My best military advice to this committee, to the secretary, to the president, would be to keep the law such as it is.' Conway's stance is considered crucial because it shows there are sharp disagreements among top officers and within the Joint Chiefs of Staff about whether to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. Opposition from military leaders helped derail earlier efforts to lift the ban, most notably former President Clinton's effort in 1993."

Watch some of Roughead and Conway's testimony, AFTER THE JUMP...

After the events of this week, I think we need to be very concerned about the direction this is heading, because it doesn't look like a "clear path" when the top lawmakers are expressing doubts about any kind of vote and refocusing their efforts on just getting a moratorium. HRC is holding a Virtual Lobby Day on March 4. Maybe that's part of the master plan.