Here we go again:
The package of domestic partnership benefits that President Obama established for federal workers on Wednesday drew the loudest protests from some of those it was intended to help, gay men and lesbians who criticized the move as too timid.
The administrative memorandum extending some partnership rights to federal workers in same-sex relationships, which Mr. Obama signed late Wednesday, allows administration personnel to take leave to care for sick partners and requires the government to recognize their partners as household members when determining overseas housing allocations for State Department employees, among other things.
But several of the nation’s most prominent gay and lesbian political leaders quickly attacked the president for failing to extend full health care benefits to the same-sex partners of federal workers, questioning the administration’s explanation that it is precluded from doing so by the Defense of Marriage Act, which Mr. Obama had vowed to repeal during his presidential campaign.
And once again, Obama reiterated his support for the repeal of DOMA. But guess what? Obama is the President, not a congressmen, and those are the folks you need to pressure, and given their behavior on DADT, you are doing a pretty crappy job:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaking at a press conference Monday said he has no plans to introduce a bill to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the Senate.
“I haven’t identified any sponsors,” he said. “My hope is that it can be done administratively.”
A Democratic aide later clarified that Reid was speaking about the possibility of using an executive order to suspend discharges or perhaps halting enforcement of the policy by changing departmental regulations within the Department of Defense.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has continually said in recent months that President Barack Obama believes the only “durable solution” to repealing the military’s gay ban would be to do so through legislative action.
Nothing would be worse for the gay rights movement than to turn these issues into perks of the oval office- elect a Democrat, DADT is suspended. Elect a Republican, DADT is enacted. This has to come from Congress. But, by all means, keep flinging poo at Obama. It feels good, and you get to say clever things like “Hey, unlike Republicans, at least we keep our President honest” while you are shooting at the wrong person.
*** Update ***
As noted in the comments, I’m not being fair or honest when I fail to mention that a lot of the anger is a result of the indefensible DOMA brief. I understand that and agree with the sentiment about it- I understand where a lot of the anger is coming from and get it.
And it turns out that the brief actually is quite defensible. So why are we yelling again?