At Netroots Nation, Blogger Challenges Bill Clinton On Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 15th, 2009 4:34 am by HL
At Netroots Nation, Blogger Challenges Bill Clinton On Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell
At the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh yesterday, former President Bill Clinton delivered the opening day’s keynote address. In his speech, Clinton declared that it is “imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill now,” telling the bloggers and activists that “the president needs your help and the cause needs your help.” About 20 […]
At the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh yesterday, former President Bill Clinton delivered the opening day’s keynote address. In his speech, Clinton declared that it is “imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill now,” telling the bloggers and activists that “the president needs your help and the cause needs your help.”
About 20 minutes into his speech, however, Clinton was interrupted by blogger Lane Hudson, who asked about the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that Clinton implemented. “Hey, you ought to go to one of those congressional health care meetings,” Clinton joked before defending his actions as president and claiming that “nobody regrets how this was implemented anymore than I do”:
CLINTON: I hated what happened. I regret it but I didn’t have, I didn’t think at the time, any choice if I wanted any progress to be made at all. Look, I think it’s ridiculous. Can you believe they spent, whatever they spent, $150,000 to get rid of a valued Arabic speaker recently? You know, the thing that changed me forever on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was when I learned that 130 gay service people were allowed to serve and risk their lives in the first Gulf War and all their commanders knew they were gay, but they let them go out there and risk their lives because they needed them. Then as soon as the first Gulf War was over, they kicked them out. That’s all I needed to know. That’s all anybody needs to know that this policy should be changed.
Watch it:
At the Huffington Post, Hudson wrote that he interrupted the speech because “it became clear there would be no questions,” so when President Clinton said that “We need an honest, principled debate,” he stood and asked his question. Hudson said he was satisfied with Clinton’s answer on DADT, writing that “he made the strongest objection to DADT he has ever made to the best of my knowledge.”
The Obama White House has committed to repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but is waiting to see “congressional action” first. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Sen. Kristian Gillibrand (D-NY) are taking the lead on repealing the provision in Congress.
Rove Claims ?A Lot Of Economists? Think The Stimulus Package Is ?Retarding The Day Of Growth?
Ever since the latest jobs report showed that fewer jobs were lost in July than expected, conservatives have been scrambling to claim that the slowing economic freefall has nothing to do with the economic stimulus package. Today, Karl Rove appeared on Fox News and claimed that “a lot of economists” think that the stimulus is […]
Ever since the latest jobs report showed that fewer jobs were lost in July than expected, conservatives have been scrambling to claim that the slowing economic freefall has nothing to do with the economic stimulus package. Today, Karl Rove appeared on Fox News and claimed that “a lot of economists” think that the stimulus is actually “retarding” economic growth:
[T]hat’s what a lot of economists are saying. Our stimulus package is retarding the day of growth not accelerating the day of growth.
Watch it:
Actually, economists participating in the latest monthly Bloomberg News survey said that “recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s has begun as President Barack Obama’s fiscal stimulus — derided as insufficient and budget-busting months ago — takes effect“:
The economy will expand 2 percent or more in four straight quarters through June, the first such streak in more than four years, according to the median of 53 forecasts in the monthly Bloomberg News survey. Analysts lifted their estimate for the third quarter by 1.2 percentage points compared with July, the biggest such boost in surveys dating from May 2003.
Analysts say that the stimulus added at least 1 percentage point to economic growth in the second quarter of this year (though the economy still contracted). “The signs of the stimulus are there,” said Allen L. Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics. “Government — federal, state and local — is helping take the economy from recession to recovery. I think it’s the primary contributor.”
Transcript:
ROVE: Well, I think economists are saying that the recession appears to be on the edge of being over, but we’re gonna have shaky retail sales and we’re gonna have unemployment persist into next year, we’re gonna have unemployment continue to go up. So it’s not going to feel like good economic times — and we aren’t. It just simply means that we’ve stopped declining. We’re plateuing, we may be able to start growing a little bit.
I thought it was interesting, though, notice that the headline in the Wall Street Journal this morning is about growth in Europe, and Germany, and France. Remember when president Obama went to the G8 and said ‘you oughta try you oughta pass a stimulus package like we did?’ And both of them said forget it. Well, their economies are recovering faster than our economy is. And that’s what a lot of economists are saying. Our stimulus package is retarding the day of growth not accelerating the day of growth.
