President Barack Obama's staff secretary, Lisa Brown, said tonight that she had regrets about a Justice Department legal brief which attempted to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act by citing cases about incestuous and underage marriages.Well, at this point "better than the Bush administration" doesn't really hold a lot of water with me. I think an orangutan with a typewriter and plenty of time could probably write something I'd like better than most Bush-era policy. I'd like a more clear improvement from "less horrible" all the way into the "good" end of the spectrum, if you please." It was an awful lot better that the brief that was written in the Bush administration," Brown said at a panel discussion during a conference of a liberal lawyers group, the American Constitution Society. "There's no question--personal statement--that there were some cites in there that should not—that should not have been in there...They were trying to...essentially eliminate arguments that the Bush Administration had made."
The citations in the brief have caused an uproar in the gay and lesbian community and have prompted calls for a boycott of a Democratic National Committee fundraiser next week. Gay activists are also mad that Obama has not acted to change the military's don't ask don't tell policy.
I would also quibble just a bit with attributing the uproar to the citations in the brief. As I tried to explain earlier, the arguments put forth in the brief are what rankles. The citations in question are part of the background section of the brief, and are only angering gay and lesbian people too lazy to read more carefully.
Oh, and about that Don't Ask Don't Tell policy?
However, when a former Bush appointee suggested that Obama could take unilateral action to reverse the don't ask don't tell policy, the Obama appointees on the panel stood mute.Hmmmm. How about that?
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The "well, it's better than Bush" reminds me of what someone very clever once said, something about "the soft bigotry of low expectations"...
ReplyDeleteWhat follows was from a speech given in New Orleans not so long ago. I cannot recall her first name but her last name was Williams.
ReplyDeleteIt is an injustice that we send a gay or lesbian soldier to die in a war--to give their life for a country that won't let them be. It also an injustice that a soldier gives their life for a Military--an exemplary Military in every way--except one in which they cannot have the picture of their lover taped to their locker because that would be "telling." ...Such a ugly word!
I am eternally grateful for everything you’ve taught in this article.
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