Our tribune of the people, Rachel Maddow, has just led off her show with coverage of the DADT vote in the Senate. This is hardly surprising, but her take on it is as usual masterful.
She leads with a clip of her interview with Joe Biden last week, in which he tells her that the reason the White House has not suspended implementation of DADT while waiting for Congress to change the law was:
Because that is the compromise we basically had to make to get the votes.... We had to build a consensus for this ... and everybody's looking for the orderly elimination of this law.... That's why that hasn't happened. [emphasis Biden's]
Not surprisingly, that wasn't good enough for Rachel.
Hey, you know what? Even though you may have made that deal, you didn't get the votes to repeal it.
More Rachelly goodness, and the challenge to the White House below the fold.
UPDATE: Courtesy of ridemybike, video link below.
If this was a political deal, if this was a political compromise, that sort of thing involves two parties negotiating in good faith about what they're going to do. The other side today did not hold up their end of the bargain, if indeed that was the bargain. So if you're the White House, are you still going to hold up your end of that broken bargain? Or are you going to do what you say you really want to do?
Biden:
I would prefer it not be orderly. I would prefer it just end -- Boom! Done.
Rachel then systematically goes down the list of Republican excuses for why they had to support the filibuster, knocking each one down with counterfacts that shows them to be liars. Anybody who's seen her show knows that nobody can do this like Rachel. She points out that these are just excuses, and that their real reason for voting against it was Teh Gayz. She shows James Inhofe and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as much as admitting it on the floor of the Senate today. Rachel's conclusion: Senators, your Culture War is showing.
After showing Republicans as the lying bigots they are, she then turned to President Obama. Footage of the president giving his SOTU speech, promising to work with Congress to end DADT this year. It is a promise he has not only made in public, it is a promise he has made in private too, to people whose lives are being ruined by this policy in effect while he is Commander in Chief, she points out. Footage of Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach on her show, recounting a meeting he had with the president:
He looked me right in the eye and he said, "We're going to get this done."
She then cites a recent ABC/WaPo poll, showing 75% national support for repealing DADT, with 64% Republican, 75% independent and 80% Democratic support.
Her conclusion:
The White House could decide right now -- tonight -- to stop implementation of this policy pending the military's review. The Right wants a culture war against gay people? In 2010, that's a war anti-gay politicians lose and pro-civil rights politicians win.
Does the White House leave that on the table and walk away? Or do they try to win? Do they do well politically by doing what they say is right for the country? Do they do it? What happens next?
Barack Obama is out of excuses. He can use stop-loss or executive order to suspend DADT implementation, to return wrongfully-discharged servicemembers to duty. Or he can let it go.
Which side are you on, Barack?
[Transcriptions are mine, and all errors are mine as well.]
