Hopefully a Quick End to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
By As part of the transition team’s “Open for Questions” project, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to questions posed online and voted on by visitors to change.gov. The final inquiry: Is the new administration going to get rid of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy?
Gibbs responded, “Thaddeus, you don’t hear a politician give a one-word answer much, but it’s yes.”
FWIW, I’ve been told by people in the military that there’s almost no stomach to fight for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and that in any case the retention of Robert Gates has been so popular that Obama has an enormous reserve of political capital. Then again, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has never been just about the military; even if the officer corps was strongly in favor of scrapping, Republicans could still be relied upon to demagogue it.