Here's the source.
MELBOURNE, Australia — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Congress should act quickly, before new members take their seats, to repeal the military's ban on gays serving openly in the military.
He, however, did not sound optimistic that the current Congress would use a brief postelection session to get rid of the law known as "don't ask, don't tell."
"I would like to see the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are," Gates said Saturday, as he traveled to defense and diplomatic meetings in Australia.
Unless the lame-duck Congress acts, the repeal effort is considered dead for now.
I seem to recall telling everyone who would listen, back in late 2008, that keeping Bob Gates on as Secretary of Defense was a fantastic idea. I have felt validated throughout the last two years. This is simply another reason why. Pragmatism and compassion are compatible, as you can see here.
There is simply no chance that the next Congress will repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. It has to happen now if Congress is to do it. There are, of course, other avenues of redress, but legislative redress is the most likely thing to stick. More to the point, I cannot imagine many of the since-defeated members of Congress voting for legislation that would directly counter the theme of the elections last week. Questions of spending and deficits are probably not going to get tackled by this Congress (there is an understandable, even honorable, disinclination to use a lame duck session to enact legislation that the electorate just rejected, to say nothing of a pretty good chance the next session will simply undo it). Don't Ask Don't Tell had very little to do with the narrative of 2010 midterms.
This is precisely the sort of thing that the lame duck Congress should tackle. How do they want to be remembered? This is the last window Congress will have for some time to end this discriminatory, wasteful, and frankly dangerous policy. It runs counter to both civil rights and to our own national security. I'm damned glad that Bob Gates gets this. Let's see if Congress does too!