Compromise Reached on Don't Ask, Don't tell!!!

Senate and House proponents of repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy have reached a compromise, a senior Senate Democratic aide tells Fox, that would eventually allow gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

“Yes, a compromise was reached that would implement repeal after the DOD report and certification by the POTUS and DOD," the aide said. This would comport with a request made recently by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who favors the repeal, that any scrapping of the 1990's-era law wait for a full review going on now at DOD on implementation. That review is expected to wrap up in December.

The major players here: Senate Armed Services Cmte Chairman Carl Levin, D-MI, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT, and Iraq war veteran and Cong. Patrick Murphy, D-PA.

This will play out on the House floor later this week, when Murphy offers an amendment to the annual defense spending blueprint bill known as the Defense Authorization. The measure is opposed by the House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Ike Skelton, D-MO, who is facing a difficult re-election back home. In the Senate, the measure will be debated and voted on in the Armed Services Committee later this week in closed session.

It is unclear how the vote will go in that committee, though the senior Senate Democratic source said, “We are optimistic, now that there is a compromise agreed to by DOD.”

Most committee Republicans are expected to oppose the measure, including war veteran Sen. John McCain, R-AZ. Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, a committee member, told Fox earlier this year, after the President proposed a repeal in his State of the Union address, "At a time when we're putting our men and women through long deployments, it's really not a good idea to engage in social engineering in the military."

The committee is divided 14 to 12, with Democrats in the majority. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-NE, has said he does not support repeal, but a spokesman for Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, tells Fox, "She is likely going to support Lieberman." So that would be a wash.

The vote is expected to be close and could come down to the vote of the Senate's newest member, Sen. Scott Brown, R-MA, who has said he wants to consult with the generals before making any decision.

Source: congress.blogs.foxnews.com...


Well, here we go. No matter what I personally think (don't agree with the repealing), that fact of the matter is all the branches of the service will suffer a lot of departures from service.

Okay, so what? Well, our forces are being used very heavily right now and do to do something like this while the country is at war-knowing full well this will disrupt you armed forces and with polls indicating many would leave the service-is foolish (and I am beign kind in my choice of words).

Having served in the army, I can tell you-this isn't going to go over well. Not now anyway. But, I think this is a clear example of how much Obama and Crew hate the US Armed Services.

















[edit on 5/25/2010 by anon72]

reply to post by anon72


I'm surprised no one posted anything. When I checked in at work earlier, it was the buzz of the place. Must be the hit &/or miss topic. Working with mostly guys who were or are in the military you tend to get a bit more testosterone. I guess.

Out of curiosity, why do you think it's so bad whether openly gay people are allowed in the military or not? Chances are that at least one person you served with was gay, but "in the closet". Why would it matter to you if that person admitted to being gay or not? He would still be the same person.

I know that's a hypothetical question, but statistically speaking there is a good chance there are quite a few homosexual people serving in the military right now right beside straight men. I guess I just don't understand the problem. Being gay doesn't make you a bad soldier, untrustworthy, unable to perform your duties or follow orders.