McCain ‘Deeply Disappointed’ by Gates and Mullen DADT Comments
Earlier, Patrick Edaburn noted the comments of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates at today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I won’t quote them again here, but I will say I was very impressed by the comments.
A cranky Sen. John McCain — note the big deal he makes over the three minute speaking limit — was decidedly NOT impressed:
I’m deeply disappointed in your statement…Your statement is ‘question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it.’ It would be far more appropriate, I say with great respect, to determine whether repealing this law is appropriate and what effects it would have on the readiness and effectiveness of the military before deciding on whether we should repeal the law or not and fortunately it is an act of Congress and it requires the agreement of Congress in order to repeal it.
Think Progress is one of many to note this contradiction:
In October of 2006…McCain explained that he understood the arguments against repealing DADT, but promised that “the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.”
With that, you’ve got to wonder how he’s doing on the home-front. Both his wife and daughter were photographed with duct tape over their mouths for the NOH8 (get it? no hate) ad campaign for marriage equality. You will remember that John McCain endorsed California’s Prop 8 while he was running for president.
3 Responses to “McCain ‘Deeply Disappointed’ by Gates and Mullen DADT Comments”
There's two issues here: DADT, and McCain. I can't speak with any real authority on DADT. But McCain looks like a charlatan, I mean, chameleon. During the presidential campaign, he was Obama lite: everything Obama was for, so was McCain. He was the ultimate moderate, leading Republicans to the center and able to see everything from the polls, I mean, peoples point of view. Now he's the ultimate neocon, I mean, conservative, leading Republicans to the right and staunchly opposing everything that candidate McCain, I mean, Obama has been pushing.
I've got to figure out what went wrong with my backspace key.
Cranky? If McCain were younger and, more importantly, if he weren't arguing for a position you disagreed with, I doubt you would have used that word. But I'll just link to this post of mine on the subject and move on: http://sovereignmind.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/o…
Think Progress take on McCain's statement is (predictably) biased. If you listen to his entire statement and Gates' statement I think the point McCain is making does not contradict his earlier statement. While he is certainly expressing quite a bit of skepticism about changing the law, his main point is that he wants the military to study whether the law should be repealed, as it apparently did in 1993 when the law was first considered. McCain is right to point out that Gates is not doing that. Gates essentially said that Obama wants it done and so the military is studying how to implement if it is passed by Congress. Gates did not say that “we ought to change the policy”. In fact, McCain is inviting the military the study the question and tell them whether we ought to change it or not, from the military's perspective. That is consistent with his previous statement.
Secondly, and less importantly, he said that if the military says we ought to change the policy, we should “consider seriously” changing it. It seems to me that is what they are trying to do, and McCain is expressing his frustration that the military seems unwilling to weigh in on the question.
Lastly, as some other have done, let me clarify that I'm not necessarily opposed to reversing the policy, but I'm arguing here that I think McCain's position is consistent and supportable: before we change the policy, we ought to know if the military thinks it will help or hurt the military's effectiveness.
McCain wants the “Military” to comment… The SecDef makes a report. Top Chief of Staff Army makes a report, Past Chief of Staff Colin Powell makes a report. The President makes a report…
Do we want privates to make reports/comments too?