ThinkFast: December 22, 2010
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 23rd, 2010 5:39 am by HL
ThinkFast: December 22, 2010
President Obama will sign a repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy this morning, something “the nation’s first African-American chief executive is likely to hail as another civil rights milestone.” “Gay and lesbian service members — brave Americans who enable our freedoms — will no longer have to hide who they are,” Obama said […]
President Obama will sign a repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy this morning, something “the nation’s first African-American chief executive is likely to hail as another civil rights milestone.” “Gay and lesbian service members — brave Americans who enable our freedoms — will no longer have to hide who they are,” Obama said in an e-mail to supporters.
The House will stay in session an extra day to vote on the 9/11 health care bill for rescue workers who responded to Ground Zero. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicated that the Senate will tweak and “finish the bill between 2pm and 4pm” today.
The Senate is expected to finally pass the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia today, after weeks of intense Republican opposition. A vote to end debate yesterday passed 67-28, mustering the 2/3rds majority necessary for final passage. “We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
“The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the ‘Great Society’ legislation of the 1960s,” a Bloomberg analysis notes, citing health care, Wall Street reform, the stimulus, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and START. “It’s all the more impressive given how polarized the Congress has been,” said Columbia University historian Alan Brinkley.
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is blaming illegal immigrants for Louisiana’s loss of a congressional seat in the latest census, saying that illegal immigrants are being counted in other states, thus penalizing states that don’t “welcome” them. “Louisiana stands to lose clout in Congress, while states that welcome illegal immigrants stand to unfairly benefit from artificially inflated population totals,” he said in a statement.
President Obama promised the Congressional Hispanic Caucus yesterday “that he will not give up on the DREAM Act” or comprehensive immigration reform. The huddle with five Hispanic members “was intended to plan a way forward for immigration reform” in a Republican-dominated Congress next year.
In his farewell speech to the Senate yesterday, one-time Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) blasted the GOP for engaging in “sophisticated cannibalism” by backing tea party candidates, and warned that members of his former party “had grown too ideological for the good” of the Senate. “In some quarters, ‘compromising’ has become a dirty word. Some senators insist on ideological purity as a precondition,” Specter said.
President Obama’s advisers are planning to meet this week to discuss a draft executive order creating a periodic review system of Guantanamo prisoners who have been detained without trial. Initiated in 2009, the proposal would establish a board “to evaluate whether each detainee poses a continued threat, or whether he can be safely transferred to another country.”
And finally: In an op-ed in the New York Times, ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ creator Larry David thanked Congress for the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, “of which I am a proud member, thank you very much.” David ticked off a list of items he plans to spend his extra cash on, including a first class plane ticket to Cabo, a flat screen TV, and “blueberries.” “Life was good, and now it’s even better. Thank you, Republicans. … I didn’t know you cared,” he wrote.
McConnell Tries And Fails To Undermine Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell Repeal In Last Ditch Effort
This morning before a jubilant audience, President Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal bill into law. At the ceremony, Obama said, “We are not a nation that says ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ We are a nation that says ‘out of many, we are one.’ We are a nation that welcomes the service of […]
This morning before a jubilant audience, President Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal bill into law. At the ceremony, Obama said, “We are not a nation that says ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ We are a nation that says ‘out of many, we are one.’ We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot. We are a nation that believes all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals we uphold today.”
But yesterday, in a last minute effort to derail the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tried to subvert today’s great civil rights achievement. McConnell tried to attach an amendment to the stripped-down National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have required the Service Chiefs to certify that implementation did not compromise military readiness or unit cohesion. The amendment would have likely extended the current certification process — which already includes the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and President Obama — and undermined the intent of the legislation and the wishes of military leadership. From McConnell’s amendment:
Purpose: To include the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces in the certification required with respect to the repeal of the policy of the Department of Defense concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces. […]
At the end of subtitle J of title V, add the following:
SEC. 597. INCLUSION OF CHIEFS OF STAFF OF THE ARMED FORCES IN CERTIFICATION REQUIRED REGARDING REPEAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE POLICY CONCERNING HOMOSEXUALITY IN THE ARMED FORCES.
Republicans have long sought to include the Service Chiefs because, as a group, the Chiefs are generally less sanguine about repeal than Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen. During their testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in early December, two of the Service Chiefs endorsed the Pentagon Working Group’s recommendation to lift the ban, while two others had mixed reactions. Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, has warned lawmakers that repeal could endanger the lives of Marines. Regardless of their views, however, all four Chiefs said they trusted Gates to address their concerns before eliminating the policy and warned Republicans that expanding the certification process could undermine the chain of command:
Senator THUNE: Do you believe that the implementing legislation, if in fact this moves forward, should allow for the chiefs, the servicemembers, any of you, to certify? […]
General CASEY: Senator, as I said to Senator Lieberman, I am very comfortable with my ability to provide input to Secretary Gates and to the Chairman that will be listened to and considered. So you could put it in there, but I don’t think it’s necessary. […] It might take it up a notch. But believe me, I will make sure that my views are heard. The other thing. If you put that into the law, I think it undercuts the Goldwater-Nichols, that we’ve been trying to put the Chairman as the principal provider of military advice. So that’s something for the committee to consider.
Senator THUNE. Anybody else care to comment on that?
Admiral ROUGHEAD. Sir, I’m very comfortable with the access and the input that we’ve had. In fact, as the report came along I could see the changes that we were recommending. So I have no concerns whatsoever about my advice not being heard.
Watch it around 4:30:
Sources close to the negotiations say that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) objected to McConnell’s amendment and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also opposed the measure.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room.
