DADT Repeal Unlikely

Despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' exhortation to Congress to "act quickly, before new members take their seats, to repeal the military's ban on gays serving openly in the military," the chances of Don't Ask Don't Tell actually being repealed appear to be vanishingly slim for the near future. Again.

The attachment to the Defense Bill which would pass the repeal is currently a political football being tossed around in Senate Armed Services Committee negotiations between the Committee's top Democrat and Republican, Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, who are "in talks on stripping the proposed repeal and other controversial provisions from a broader defense bill, leaving the repeal with no legislative vehicle to carry it."

And the Obama administration, in a move that will surprise absolutely fucking no one, has failed to identify the repeal as a priority for the final session of the outgoing Democratic House majority.

Asked what the White House priorities are for the coming congressional session, press secretary Robert Gibbs named four issues—tax cuts, a nuclear-arms treaty with Russia, a child nutrition bill and confirmation of Jack Lew as White House budget director. Asked why he wouldn't put gays in the military on the list, Mr. Gibbs said it looked like Republicans would block action.

So, ya know, why even try?

(Hey, Mr. President: If you want to know why your party lost last week, maybe it's because you let the Republicans set the agenda even when they're in the minority. Just saying.)

Meanwhile, also to resoundingly no surprise, incoming House Speaker John Boehner is also not keen to make repealing DADT a legislative priority.

The issue isn't high on the to-do list of Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio), the likely next House speaker. "In the midst of two wars, even with one winding down, I certainly don't think this will be a priority," said Michael Steel, spokesman for Mr. Boehner. When the House voted to repeal don't ask earlier this year, five Republicans voted yes and 168 voted no.

That a Democratic executive branch and Democratically-controlled Congress, with the help of the judiciary, could not get DADT overturned, despite the President's claim to want to put an end to the profoundly discriminatory policy, is indicting evidence of the Democratic Party's institutional fecklessness on social justice issues.

Marginalized people have no champion in the US government anymore.