“Don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal remains on life support. True, John McCain’s transformation into Jesse Helms is one of the more disheartening developments (McCain/Palin would have been a train wreck, not that Obama/Biden isn’t). On the plus side, the announcement by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) that he will support repeal, as will Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), most likely with fellow GOP senators Olympia Snowe (Maine), Richard Lugar (Mo.), and perhaps John Ensign (Nev.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and maybe a few others, shows that there is part of the Grand Old Party that can be worked with, if there is a will to do so.
What remains startling about the 111 Congress is that, aside from the so-far fumbled DADT repeal effort and passage of a lame hate-crimes bill, nothing in terms of gay legal equality has passed. Nancy Pelosi’s leftwing House didn’t even move the Employee Non-Discrimination Act out of committee (and despite the debatable merits of the bill, a majority of Americans say they favor barring workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation). Repeal or modification of the Defense of Marriage Act was never even seriously raised.
Analysis of why two years of a huge Democratic majority in the House, with a (for a year and a half) filibuster-proof Democratic Senate majority, yielded so little should be the focus of much soul-searching within the LGBT movement. That it won’t speaks volumes about the big Washington LGBT activists’ partisanship-first misdirection (yes, I mean you Human Rights Campaign).
More. Jon Stewart feels the need to mock Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for their testimony in support of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
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16 Comments for “Is the GOP Future Scott Brown or John McCain?”
posted by Debrah on
I think that the Scott Browns will be the future of the GOP….even though I’m a registered Democrat and no expert on the strategies of either party, I think the GOP will try to persuade the social conservatives to chill out in order to do well in 2012.
The GOP needs to cease making abortion as well as other culture war issues front and center. They alienate so many independents.
Just as Obama has alienated them after they helped him win in 2008.
2012 is going to be a bumpy ride!
Additionally……
Right now the Obama administration needs to get a grip and stage a
démarche against those responsible for a mere PFC being allowed access to such information used by Julian Assange and his clandestine benefactors.
Krauthammer’s Throw the WikiBook at Them……
…….as well as this article that someone sent me to read by none other than MSNBC’s Buchanan.
He asks an excellent question: Why is PFC Manning the only one apprehended thus far?
And he outlines the sober facts and the extent of the damage done.
The Obama administration seems to be missing-in-action on this one.
posted by Tommy J on
Actually a number of good advances in terms of gay rights were made at the federal level. The Hate Crimes Bill being one of them, along with some important executive orders from the Obama White House in terms of same-sex couples health care and some domestic partnership benifits for federal employees.
One should remember that neither party operates like they do in say, the UK. Their were enough conservative Democrats in office to delay/hold up gay rights bills. Partly, due to the fact that we have primaries and, partly, because we have no real national elections.
No, its not great, [i wish more could have been done] but I doubt that the new right-wing ‘Tea Party’ movement that got the Republican majority is going to be much better.
posted by Curt on
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brown and Collins support repeal. I will believe it when they vote for repeal. The story has a familiar ring.
posted by BobN on
a majority of Americans say they favor
Tell that to your party. A majority of Americans favor all sorts of things that the GOP will and does filibuster.
posted by BobN on
Debrah, I’m starting to worry about you. You seem to be falling for all the shallow opposition talking points these days. Harry Reid is an “elf” because he conducted senate business the way a majority leader has always been able to? You want to protect abortion rights but you think Reid should allow GOP amendments to the Defense Authorization bill? You think Obama is somehow responsible because a private stole a copy of a database of classified documents that has available to literally thousands of low- to mid-level staff for years? [The only novel aspects of the Wikileaks affair are WikiLeaks itself and public disclosure — other spies had this stuff years ago.]
posted by Jorge on
Someone remind me what substantive gay equality things were important again? Did we want the laundry list or did we want progress? Seems to me there was a decision to focus on the smaller things–hate crimes and workplace discrimination–first. Reasonable idea, but it didn’t work. Repubicans raised objections, Democrats got squeamish, and our community did not unite behind the bills (I certainly didn’t support either one of them). It got bogged down. Would it have been better or worse had they tried tackling DOMA and DADT first?
[The only novel aspects of the Wikileaks affair are WikiLeaks itself and public disclosure — other spies had this stuff years ago.]
A most excellent concession. Arrest that rogue spy and extradite him to each nation in turn, and when he dies keep extraditing his skeleton until he has served his sentence for espionage in every nation he has harmed. Okay, I don’t mean that last part.
posted by Carl on
It’s very easy for Brown to say he will vote for repeal when it will never happen. Based on his history in politics, and his vote earlier this year, I can’t see him being much of a vote on these matters.
Every time any attempt is made to persuade Republicans to repeal DADT, you either have very prominent voices (McCain, Graham) trying to convince people that it’s not right, or you have other voices saying well maybe, but only if you do this, and then that, and then something else too.
The Democrats failed, as they are so good at doing, but even at their peak of 60 votes I doubt they could have repealed DADT, because a few Democrats do not agree with repeal.
The main question I have is why, after all the talk of Republicans not focusing on social issues, they have actually moved even further to the right on matters like DADT, and also, if there is anything that anyone can suggest which would ever cause Republicans to change their mind. As it is now, they don’t have to, because they know that the blame will always go on Democrats, and on gay rights organizations, and the social conservatives will be pleased, while moderates will either not care, or will go along with the idea that maybe if people had been nicer to Republicans in the Senate and given them the moon and the stars, they might have, sort of, kind of, considered a vote on repeal in between letting McCain wage a very strong and very successful campaign in favor of, basically, never repealing DADT.
posted by David J on
Do you really think the Dems are timid and ineffectual on GLBT issues because they are being hounded and attacked from leftists who oppose advances for gay rights? It’s the right wing that causes Dems to back away from gay marriage, workplace protection, repeal of DADT, etc. They all fear attack ads from those two guys in Texas. There are not enough socially liberal libertarian Republicans in the country to tip the balance in their favor from the GLBT perspective. The vast majority of Republicans are socially conservative, and almost all of the rest don’t care enough to lift a finger (other than the middle one) for us. The best strategy is not to play the Republicans against the Democrats, because the threat of GLBT support for Republicans can never be taken seriously. The best strategy is to en-debt the Democrats to us by coalitioning with them. If we can be the swing vote on enough issues, we will have some leverage with the Dems. Never with the Republicans.
Yeah, it would be nice if the Republicans elected a bunch of libertarian, enlightened, fair-minded people. But they keep voting for Sarah Palins.
posted by Carl on
Something else I wonder about is whether anyone believes that Republicans in the Senate are opposing this only because of Harry Reid. The arguments I have heard from McCain, and to a lesser degree, Graham, are about why DADT must be kept in place, and it doesn’t sound to me like this is something they want to see repealed anytime soon. When we hear arguments like this shouldn’t happen during wartime, that means it will never happen, because in one way or another the US is always going to be involved in some type of combat or conflict.
I have heard this site talk repeatedly about how the Democrats failed, but I’ve heard less about the likelihood that through McCain, the GOP is setting up a position which will perfectly justifying never repealing DADT, regardless of what any Democrat does or does not do.
posted by avee on
Jon Stewart blasts McCain, but it’s true that he totally dishes Bayh and Collins, as if speaking up for gays was also “square” and unhip. So despite his sneering at McCain, what comes across is that he’s contemptuous about gays and our defenders as well. But then again, he’s contemptuous of just about everyone, which is why liberals love him (they’re contemptuous of everyone, too, and somehow believe if they idolize Stewart they are part of the hip crowd that’s so smugly superior to everyone else).
posted by Jorge on
Do you really think the Dems are timid and ineffectual on GLBT issues because they are being hounded and attacked from leftists who oppose advances for gay rights?
It’s not “the Dems” who are being hounded and attacked from leftists. It’s President Obama.
I have heard this site talk repeatedly about how the Democrats failed, but I’ve heard less about the likelihood that through McCain, the GOP is setting up a position which will perfectly justifying never repealing DADT, regardless of what any Democrat does or does not do.
There have been a fair number of Republicans, among them Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, who have said to varying degrees that they think the momentum is that DADT is going to end sooner or later, and probably should. Maintaining opposition to a repeal isn’t possible under those conditions. There’s an ebb and flow to the politics.
posted by Debrah on
“Debrah, I’m starting to worry about you. You seem to be falling for all the shallow opposition talking points these days. “
~~~~~~~~~~~
BobN–
Admit it.
You have a soft spot for me and a difficult time reconciling that with our differences regarding culture war issues.
LOL!
You have to also admit that it’s outrageous that someone such as Manning has been the only person charged….when his superiors are the most culpable.
Even though he’s an irresponsible nut case, there are others who bear more responsibility.
And about Harry Reid,….he, Pelosi, and Obama could have implemented those issues which are important to you if they had wanted to do so.
2012 will be a time of reckoning.
posted by Carl on
“But then again, he’s contemptuous of just about everyone, which is why liberals love him (they’re contemptuous of everyone, too, and somehow believe if they idolize Stewart they are part of the hip crowd that’s so smugly superior to everyone else).”
Did you see the liberal reaction (Rachel Maddow et al) to his “rally to restore sanity”? They were ticked off because they felt he wasn’t being partisan enough. Stewart is more of the can’t-we-all-just-get-along type than much else.
“There have been a fair number of Republicans, among them Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, who have said to varying degrees that they think the momentum is that DADT is going to end sooner or later, and probably should. Maintaining opposition to a repeal isn’t possible under those conditions. There’s an ebb and flow to the politics.”
There’s all kinds of popular legislation which is never passed. Many of those who support repeal don’t really care. Many of those who oppose repeal are very outspoken on the issue. They can point to this year’s election results and say that a huge supporter of repealing DADT was defeated (Patrick Murphy) while a huge opponent was elected (Vicki Hartzler). They also have senators like McCain and Graham who will get out there and sell the message against repeal, while those who support repeal are disorganized or don’t really see it as a major priority.
posted by Twilight for John McCain - Big Tent Revue on
[…] tried to be somewhat judicious in my criticism of John McCain’s transformation into Jesse Helms. That’s partially because I don’t see the value of getting mad at him and partially […]
posted by TommyJ on
John might be more for more generation, which might explain why some people did not get the joke. I saw the clip on television and thought it was funny. I took it as mocking the fact that the entire tone of the Congressional discussion on dumping DODT was actually much more sane then say, 1993. In other words, politicians are actually being reasoned and truthful about a hot button issue.
Again, the fact that Democrats had a majority was not a guarantee of much, unless a select group of conservative-ish Democrats were willing to support a gay rights bill.
Likewise having the GOP sweep into power does not guarantee horrible things, except to the extent that anti-gay socially conservative politicians have more power then say, more moderate or liberal Republicans.
On a final note, most of the so-called ‘RINO’ are probably much closer to the original GOP then some of its modern right-wing versions.
posted by BobN on
You have to also admit that it’s outrageous that someone such as Manning has been the only person charged….when his superiors are the most culpable.
If by “culpable” you mean that they enacted policies and procedures to implement the will of the Executive, the Congress and, according to polling, the vast majority of the American public to make sensitive data more easily accessible across government and, in particular, intelligence agencies, then who should they arrest first? My vote, as usual, would be to start by arresting George Dubya Bush. Afterall, it was under his administration that the barriers to data sharing be torn down and at his instigation that the Department of Homeland Security be created as the umbrella for the many intelligence agencies.
No, I don’t really think they should arrest Dubya. (not for this, at least) And it would make just as little sense to arrest anyone for creating the situation that Manning exploited. It was created on purpose with this unfortunate result being an unintended consequence. And, again, the only unique aspect of this result is the public disclosure.