They said Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that such a move would have on military discipline. Then, the president hopes to be able to make a case to members of both parties that overturning the 1993 law would be in the best interest of national security.
After all nobody who has advocated repeal has studied this for 15 years. This is so phony but not as phony as the issue itself. With control of congress the Democrats could have repealed this two years ago if they choose, but they were afraid of the elections and they and colleges loved the issue as a club to use against ROTC. Via Glenn and yes the lack of speed is deliberate.
I’m pretty hard on the left at this blog so when kudos need to be given they shouldn’t be neglected:
I’ve never cared for Tom Daschle, on substance or politics, but I know so little about health care that I have hesitated to discuss whether Daschle is a good choice for HHS. But in light of this news, why in heaven’s name should President Obama lift a finger for a guy who basically did not tell him the truth:
Kudos for talk left for not letting Daschle off the hook on his taxes. This is a huge mistake on Obama’s part. Believe me when people are in the process of paying their taxes (I’ll be doing mine today or tomorrow) its bad enough that you have a treasure secretary that didn’t pay his taxes how many more are we going to see?
In the month of January alone, Mr. Obama has forced Timothy Geithner, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to cough up $43,000 he owed the IRS, and former Sen. Tom Daschle to pay off his $128,000 tax obligation. Mr. Geithner will put his tax-paying experience to good use, overseeing the IRS as Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Daschle hopes his recently-good behavior will garner Senate confirmation as the next Secretary of the Health and Human Services.
“With the IRS underfunded as it is,” said Mr. Gibbs, “this collection method is much more efficient than dispatching field agents. Arresting these men, or compelling them to pay penalties would take years, and make them feel bad about themselves. The president’s method not only gets more money to the government to help our economy, but provides a self-esteem boost by giving these wealthy men important-sounding titles.”
I think I’ll add a category called “honorable left” to give a thumbs up for situations like this.
You might remember Samantha Power who’s views on Israel were a bit of an issue but her statements about the now secretary of state were embarrassing enough to remove her from the campaign. But not embarrassing enough to keep her out of the administration:
Officials familiar with the decision say Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, who is now secretary of state. NSC staffers often accompany the secretary of state on foreign trips.
Many readers back in 2002 will remember Palestinian allegations of a “Jenin Massacre” which both the U.N. and many journalists hyped. The ensuing investigation, however, showed that there had been no massacre, and that Palestinian claims of casualties were exponentially exaggerated. At a George Soros-funded conference since published in the volume Ethnic Violence and Justice (2003), Power seemed upset that The New York Times had chosen to correct the narrative about Jenin, instead of holding Israel’s feet to the fire over allegations of its human rights violation.
Power is not just assenting to the Israel Lobby view of American foreign policy, but is also arguing that Israel had something to do with the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003–an appalling slander, and a telling one.
Also of note is a recent opinion piece Power wrote for TIME magazine, titled “Rethinking Iran,” the thrust of which rethinking involves the need to engage diplomatically the mullahs and pretend that the Iranian nuclear program is a figment of the paranoid imagination of the Bush administration.
Power has argued that the US should stop financially supporting Israel’s military and instead invest in a Palestinian state, with US forces on the ground to protect it from genocide by Israel. She has also expressed annoyance that the New York Times had admitted there had been no 2002 massacre of Palestinians by Israel in Jenin and condemned Israel for allegedly committing human rights abuses.
A clip on the subject:
And finally Abe Greenwald yesterday on Obama’s moves in general:
It is fascinating watching “progressives” who’ve lectured everyone about the sins of America in supporting dictatorships and oppressive regimes during the Cold War now turn silent when America embraces that same amoral approach when it no longer faces nuclear annihilation.
President Obama is freely willing – in total silence – to work with oppresive regimes and dictators and respect their sovereigny if they unclench their fists against us. Meanwhile, they can use that fist ad libitum, so to speak, against their own people without one word of criticism from the US. Respect, you see, is the new game in town.
Stability isn’t always a good thing. In 1850 “stability” would have been strict enforcement of the Fugitive slave law. In 1954 “Stability” would have been rejecting Brown vs Board of Education since Plessy v Ferguson was established law for nearly 60 years. Stability would have been keeping the Berlin Wall up.
Gotta love this stuff.
Carter 7 Arthur 2 I don’t know if I’m going to have a 10 run mercy rule.
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