Bill Clinton Heckled at Netroots Nation; Answers on DADT, DOMA

Blogger/activist Lane Hudson stood up and interrupted Bill Clinton's keynote last night at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, asking, "Mr. President, will you call for a repeal of DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell? Right now?"

Clinton responded to Hudson that he ought to go to one of the health care town halls. "You'd do really well there." But Hudson did get the answer he wanted, and more on DOMA.

Answered Clinton, when interrupted again: "You wanna talk about ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell',I'll tell you exactly what happened. You couldn't deliver me anysupport in the Congress and they voted by a veto-proof majority in bothhouses against my attempt to let gays serve in the military and themedia supported them. They raised all kinds of devilment. And all mostof you did was to attack me instead of getting some support in thecongress. Now, that's the truth."

Clinton went on to explain why he signed DOMA: "We were attempting at the time, in a very reactionarycongress, to head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendmentbanning gay marriage to the states. And if you look at the Levinreferendum much later in 2004, in the election, which the Republicansput on the ballot, to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, Ithink it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep theRepublican congress presenting that."

Clinton's entire answer and transcript, AFTER THE JUMP…

Hudson discusses why he stood up and interrupted Clinton on the Huffington Post. "…it became clear there would be no questions. As I sat in the audiencethinking about how Netroots Nation is about celebrating the most openforum of discussion ever to exist, it occurred to me that we werenothing more than a captive audience being talked to. One waycommunication was NOT what we were there to celebrate and advance."

Transcript (via Andrés Duque at Blabbeando)

HUDSON: Mr. President, will you call for a repeal of DOMA and “Don't Ask Don't Tell” right now? Please…

CLINTON: Hey, you know, you ought to go to one of those congressional healthcare meetings. You did really well there. I'll be glad to talk aboutthat. If you will… If you will sit down and let me talk, I'll be gladto discuss it. But if you stand up and scream I won't be able to talk.But the other guys would love to have ya. I wanna talk a little aboutthat too.

But anyway, so, here we are in a different world. Now,it's not like the 1990's. You wanna talk about ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell',I'll tell you exactly what happened. You couldn't deliver me anysupport in the Congress and they voted by a veto-proof majority in bothhouses against my attempt to let gays serve in the military and themedia supported them. They raised all kinds of devilment. And all mostof you did was to attack me instead of getting some support in thecongress. Now, that's the truth.

Secondly – it's true! – Youknow, you may have noticed that presidents aren't dictators. They voted- they were about to vote for the old policy – by margins exceeding 80%in the House and exceeding 70% in the Senate. The gave test votes outthere to send me a message that they were going to reverse any attemptI made by executive order to force them to accept gays into themilitary. And let me remind you that the public opinion is now morestrongly in our favor than it was sixteen years ago and I havecontinued supporting it. That John Shalikashvili, who was Chairman ofthe Joint Chiefs of Staff under me, was against “Don't A..” – wasagainst letting gays serve – is now in favor of it. This is a differentworld. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Let me also saysomething that never got sufficient publicity at the time. When GeneralColin Powell came up with this ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell' it was definedwhile he was Chairman much differently than it was implemented. He saidthat, if you will accept this, here is what we'll do. We will notpursue anyone, any military members out of uniform will be free tomarch in gay rights parades, go to gay bars, go to political meetings,whatever mailings they get, whatever they do in their private lives,none of this will be a basis for dismissal. It all turned out to be afraud because of the enormous reaction against it among the middlelevel officers and down after it was promulgated and Colin was gone. Sonobody regrets how this was implemented even more… anymore than I do.But the congress also put that into law by a veto-proof majority andmany of your friends voted for that, believing the explanation abouthow it would be eliminated. So, I hated what happened. I regret it. ButI didn't have, I didn't think at the time, any choice if I wanted anyprogress to be made at all. Look, I think it's ridiculous. Can youbelieve they spent – what did they spend? – 150,000 dollars to get ridof a valuable Arabic speaker recently?

And, you know, the thingthat changed me forever on ‘Don't Ask Don't Tell' was when I learnedthat 130 gay service people were allowed to serve and risk their livesin the 1st Gulf War and all their commanders knew they were gay, theylet them go and risk their lives ‘cause they needed them, and then assoon as the 1st Gulf War was over, they kicked them out. That's all Ineeded to know, that's all anybody needs to know, to know that thispolicy should be changed.

Now, while we're at it, let me say onething about DOMA, since you… The reason I signed DOMA was, and I saidwhen I signed it, that I thought the question of whether gays shouldmarry should be left out to states and the religious organizations, andif any church or other religious body wanted to recognize gay marriagethey ought to. We were attempting at the time, in a very reactionarycongress, to head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendmentbanning gay marriage to the states. And if you look at the Levinreferendum much later in 2004, in the election, which the Republicansput on the ballot, to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, Ithink it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep theRepublican congress presenting that. The President doesn't even get toveto that. It's the Congress can refer constitutional amendments to thestates. I didn't like signing DOMA, and I certainly didn't like theconstraints it would put on benefits, and I've done everything I'vecould, and I am proud to say that the State Department was the firstfederal department to restore benefits to gay partners in the Obamaadministration, and I think we are going forward in the right directionnow for federal employees, and I don't like that eith… I don't like theDOMA.

But actually all these things illustrate the point I wastrying to make. America has rapidly moved to a different place to a lotof these issues and so what we have to decide is what we are going todo about it.