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Thursday, August 13, 2009
Summer in the Capitol City
President Barack Obama's proclaimed LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) Equality month in June extended into July, causing major liberal media to follow the traveling "Gays in the Military Campaign" (GIMC), led by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and his new BFFs at the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay activist group in the nation.
Liberal media keep following the road show, which is planning to visit at least seven cities with an entourage of former servicemembers who tell their stories about honorable discharges for homosexuality under the 1993 law. On July 8, CMR Executive Director Tommy Sears appeared on CNN's "Situation Room," with the network's Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence. (Sorry, no video link is available. The performance must have been so powerful and persuasive that activists at the network just had to remove it from the website.) However, a partial transcript and analysis of the report is available from the Media Research Center, which highlighted it as one of its "Bias Alerts," pointing out the disparity in time allotted to repeal proponents and our opposing view
Meanwhile, in response to a USA Today editorial pushing gays in the military, retired Admiral Jerome Johnson and Lt. Gen. E.G. Shuler, USAF (Ret.), two of 1,148 Flag & General Officers for the Military, signed this "Opposing View" op-ed titled A Matter of National Security.
Elaine Donnelly wrote this column for US News & World Report, which ran with one by Aubrey Sarvis of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). Elaine analyzed the latest flawed idea from the California-based Michael D. Palm Center, an activist group that used to call itself the "Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military." In May the Palm Center issued a report advocating suspension of discharges currently required by law. Elaine explained the breaking of faith with the troops that such an action by President Obama would represent:
-Allowing Gays in the Military Would be Unfair and Hurt Troop Morale
LGBT Month was supposed to culminate with the suspension order from President Obama-a constitutionally ridiculous idea on many levels, starting with its violation of the oath of office requiring the president to uphold the laws of the land. "Not so fast," warns this commentary in (of all places) the Washington Post:
-Do Tell
Sometimes the opposition helps to make our case with unintended absurdity. Witness Richard Cohen, who made one of the more inane arguments we have read in a June 30 Washington Post column:
-Open the Military Closet
"Of course, there will be resistance to changing 'don't ask, don't tell.' So what? It's the right thing to do and the military, of all institutions, knows how to enforce discipline. Will there be incidents? You bet. Will a gay man hit on one who is not? Again, you bet. But does this happen all the time with heterosexual women and heterosexual men? Of course. Come-ons are part of life. Same sex or opposite sex, they are not fatal."
Pardon us, Mr. Cohen, but the consequences of indiscipline in the military can be fatal-to individuals and to national security. Your elitist racial analogy breaks down in comparison with certain realities involving human sexuality. In order to encourage good order and discipline, the military continues to separate men and women to the greatest degree practicable in close quarters involving little or no privacy. It is, as you say, the right thing to do.
Audie Murphy (Not)
This review of Patrick Murphy's book Taking the Hill, posted on Military.com, analyzed the 2008 autobiography of the Army veteran from Pennsylvania who has become a hero to gay activists demanding repeal of the 1993 law regarding gays in the military. CMR President Elaine Donnelly, who has read Murphy's book, concludes that even the full title is a bit overstated:
-Taking the Hill - From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress
It didn't take long for Aubrey Sarvis of the SLDN to accuse Donnelly of disparaging Rep. Murphy's military record, even though she did not. It seems that anyone who quotes from Rep. Murphy's book, or from his own Bronze Star citation for seven months of honorable service with an Army Brigade Operational Law Team (BOLT) in Iraq, risks being accused of "swiftboating."
Sarvis falsely accused Elaine on a liberal blog because he cannot dispute her primary point, as stated in her article for Human Events:
-Murphy's (LGBT) Law for the Military
"[There is] every reason to expect that under Murphy's New LGBT Law -- just like the original Murphy's Law -- everything that can go wrong likely will go wrong. America's military is the best in the world, but various types of sexual misconduct still occur. Men and women are human, and therefore imperfect. Homosexuals are no more perfect than anyone else. Sound military personnel policies encourage discipline rather than indiscipline, but Murphy's New LGBT Law would have the opposite effect."
Now It Can Be Told
So - former Rep. John McHugh of New York, the former Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, really is a closet gays-in-the-military supporter. Who knew?
McHugh Says View Has Changed on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
At a hearing on his confirmation to be the new Secretary of the Army before the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 30, McHugh stated his views as follows:
"It is a serious issue and it is an issue that has not been before me as a Member of Congress since 1993. The reality is the President has made very clear...I have no doubt the President is going to press forward with his intent to change that policy. To whatever degree remains to be seen. I think he would like a full reversal. It is also without question that Secretary Gates has begun a process of what he describes as softening that policy. Whatever that may mean remains to be seen.
"My view, as Secretary of the Army, if confirmed, would be to do the most effective job I could garnering the military input and information that I think any Secretary and any President would like as they go forward in finalizing the determination. That is how I described my envisioned role to the administration. They seemed content with that.
But having said that, two other factors. Whatever the decision of the President and the Secretary of Defense, it would be my responsibility, if confirmed...to best describe...the rationale, and the justification for whatever policy evolves. That is the responsibility of a service Secretary, as I see it, under title 10. And at the end of the day, I think it is worth noting, of course, this is a policy embedded in law, and there will be no overturning of it without the agreement of this Congress, the House, the Senate, and of course, the President."
Funny how Mr. McHugh has forgotten that the issue of gays in the military was right there before him not 16 years ago-but only twelve months ago. His promise to seek full information and "military input" rings hollow to anyone who remembers his sorry performance as Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee last July. During a hearing staged by Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Susan Davis (D-CA), McHugh just sat there and watched his HASC colleagues bully Elaine Donnelly and her fellow witness Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, a former Delta Force soldier who was otherwise occupied in 1993. As a Special Operations Forces Ranger, Jones was there to rescue his buddies when the Black Hawk went down in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Ranking Member McHugh did nothing to intervene when HASC Democrats (and one since-defeated RINO, Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, who was not even a member of the committee) tried to intimidate Donnelly with a series of absurd or insulting questions. McHugh failed in his responsibility as a legislator to defend the 1993 law, but it sounds like he will be more eager to do the bidding of President Obama if the law is repealed.
Memo to John McHugh: the 1993 law will not be repealed if pro-defense Republicans and Democrats ensure that future hearings are conducted with more courtesy than you provided as HASC Ranking Member in July 2008. With the chairman of both the HASC and SASC having committed to hearings, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have the responsibility to take the issue seriously, and to consider the extreme and harmful consequences of repealing the law. Our troops deserve no less.
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