Cheney Says NO To Moderation But Will Obama Go Along To Get Along-- At Least In Terms Of Equality For Gay People?

The always despicable Dick Cheney was interviewed by North Dakota radio host Scott Hennen yesterday. Cheney urged his political party to stick to an extremist strategy:

Hennen: Some people are wringing their hands saying, "This is an example of why the party needs to change, to hear the message of Specter," that, as Colin Powell said, the Republican Party needs to moderate. Do you think the Republican Party needs to moderate? Is that the message of the Specter defection, or the state of the party these days?

Cheney: No I don't. I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate. This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas...what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and Constitutional principles. You know, when you add all those things up the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy. I for one am not prepared to do that, and I think most us aren't. Most Republicans have a pretty good idea of values, and aren't eager to have someone come along and say, "Well, the only way you can win is if you start to act more like a Democrat." I really think we go through these cycles periodically Scott, and I've been through them before. I remember campaigning across the country with Gerald Ford in 1974 when I was his Chief of Staff. This was the Watergate Election, the first one since Nixon had to resign. It was a train wreck; I mean, we got blown away in every part of the country. In 1976 we lost the presidency. By 1980 Ronald Reagan was president, we'd had a major resurgence in the party and we'd captured control of the Senate, and obviously embarked upon the Reagan Era in American politics. So I think periodically we have to go through one these sessions. It helps clear away some of the underbrush...some of the older folks who've been around a long time (like yours truly) need to move on, and make room for that young talent that's coming along. But I think it's basically healthy.

Most Americans think Cheney should follow his own advice and move on, but he's become-- along with Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michele Bachmann-- the voice of an America-hating fringe element that is actually driving the Republican Party off a cliff. They're defining themselves by what they oppose and what they obstruct-- even if they don't know themselves what they're opposing and obstructing, like Obama's Supreme Court nominee; they just know that whoever it is, they're against it.

My concern though isn't with the nuts and kooks still knife fighting each other in the ever shrinking Republican pup tent. Back in mainstream America there is some serious business that's being attended to and last night Rachel Maddow highlighted one aspect that hasn't been getting much attention lately: the human tragedy of American military men and women still being drummed out of the service just because they are gay-- one of the awful Clinton legacies, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, something supported by only 33% of Americans.

Obama clearly states he's against it-- as you can see in the letter he wrote this week to Sandy Tsao, a young woman who's being kicked out of the military because she's a lesbian.


Last night Rachel Maddow interviewed Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate who is also being kicked out of the service for being gay-- not for doing anything gay, but just for being open about the fact that he is gay. It makes as much sense as kicking someone out of the military for being redheaded. You can watch the segment below. It includes an interview with Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired admiral who is also the highest ranking ex-military officer to have ever served in the House and one of the co-sponsors of a bill to get rid of the heinous Don't Ask, Don't Tell legislation.

It's politically inconvenient for Obama to do what he knows-- and says-- is the right thing. Just now. So he sent Rahm over to get the Inside-the-Beltway gay sell-out groups to go along with putting all this inconvenient stuff on the backburner. But when will something like this ever not be inconvenient? I did a reality check with the guy who really understands how these Inside-the-Beltway advocacy group work, Lane Hudson. He told me this morning that they do "appear to have unprecedented access to the White House. While we'd think that meant they were inside fiercely advocating for full civil equality as soon as possible, public comments indicate they are instead taking orders from the White House. That's not how it is supposed to work. If Obama isn't being the 'fierce advocate' he promised and our advocacy organizations aren't being a 'fierce advocate', then then we're dangerously close to squandering this unique, precious, historic moment ripe for major advances towards equality on the Federal level."

Dan Choi, Sandy Tsao and thousands of other gay American men and women serving our country are being treated like trash. It's outrageous that it should go on for even one more minute, just so some unreconstructed right wing hatemongers can feel the satisfaction of waking up in the morning and knowing their sociopathic hatreds and bigotry trumps the president and the American people.

[F]or more than a month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and most recently national security adviser and former Marine General James Jones have made clear that if repeal is on the agenda, it is pretty far down.

In a Washington Post profile, Jones said that when Obama was under pressure recently to review the ban on gays in the military, Jones went to see him and advised him to avoid taking on another issue. He said Obama agreed.

"Don't ask, don't tell" is a compromise forged during a pitched battle between the military and former President Bill Clinton that consumed the first months of his administration. Since then, at least 12,500 gays and lesbians have been discharged. An estimated 65,000 are believed to be currently serving in the military.

...Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a public policy think tank at UC Santa Barbara that has studied the issue of gays in the military and was the first to call attention to Choi's case, said Obama could lift the ban now by executive order.

"The president obviously wants to avoid a fight with conservatives in both parties in Congress, but what's tragic about the delay is that he could suspend the discharge process for gay soldiers with the stroke of a pen," he said.

Belkin said military law experts have found that while the law requires the military to discharge service members found to be gay, "nothing requires the military to reach such findings" and Obama could just order the military to stop.

Polls show strong public support for repeal, but some surveys say the majority in the military that supports it is smaller.

These are real men and women with real lives and what's happening to them is happening right now. I appreciate that Obama is letting it leak out that two lesbian judges are on his short list-- despite raging homophobic asshole John Thune's (R-SD) threats-- of Supreme Court nominees. (Looks like someone got Jeff Sessions the official talking points in time for him to step back from his completely uncharacteristic "all men are created equal" messaging of the other day.) And it's still unacceptable for a indefensible policy like Don't Ask Don't Tell to continue ruining the lives of thousands of people. As Eugene Robinson suggested in today's Washington Post, it's time for Obama to stop playing footsie with gay Americans and get off the sidelines and show some leadership... now. We're not talking about a Cheney vision of the world here; this is the Barack Obama presidency.