Yep: hating on gay people is so ingrained in the mindset of today's Republican Party that Republican Senators are threatening to filibuster the defense authorization bill if it includes the compromise hammered out between Senator Lieberman, Congressman Patrick Murphy and the White House to repeal DADT. From Roll Call:
Armed Services Republicans threatened Wednesday to filibuster the defense authorization bill if it comes to the floor with Democrat-backed language repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Armed Services ranking member John McCain said Thursday that he would “without a doubt” support a filibuster if the bill goes to the floor with repeal language.
“I’ll do everything in my power,” the Arizona Republican said, citing letters from the four service chiefs urging Congress not to act before a Pentagon review of the policy is complete. “I’m going to do everything I can to support the men and women of the military and to fight what is clearly a political agenda.”
The funny part about this whole ordeal? The compromise that the Republicans are threatening to filibuster allows the Pentagon to have the final say in the issue, which is precisely why it is not receiving the broadest support in activist circles. And yet, despite the fact that the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs get to be the ultimate arbiters of whether the policy is repealed, that's not good enough for today's homophobic Republican Party. Today's Republicans don't want gay people to be able to serve in the military--even if the Pentagon says it's okay.
That's a pretty good indication of where the Republican Party stands. They don't really care what the military has to say. They're just interested in trying to preserve one more way of telling the country that being gay isn't okay.
