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Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff Writer
Feb 11, 2010
Among those reporting on the Feb. 2 U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on reversing “don’t ask, don’t tell” was veteran blogger Ana Marie Cox. She has followed the issue extensively online, in print and on the airwaves, including as a frequent guest on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
In an interview with WiG, Cox said it was “striking” to hear both Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledge the time has come to allow lesbians and gays to serve openly in the Armed Forces.
“They’re the ones who run the military,” she said. “It’s long been a canard on the right that the military doesn’t want DADT repealed. But it turns out they’re OK with it. … This is a bigger deal than Obama saying it.”
Some Democrats have been reluctant to support repeal for fear they’d become vulnerable to Republican charges that they’re weak on defense. Having Mullen and Gates come out in favor of repeal “gives them a lot of political cover,” Cox said.
Despite the change in attitude among military leaders, Republicans on the Senate committee expressed opposition. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., accused Mullen of imposing his personal acceptance of gays and lesbians on his subordinates.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has previously said he’d support repeal if the military’s top commanders asked for it, attacked Mullen and Gates for moving forward with a review to change the policy. He issued a thinly veiled threat that congressional Republicans would block their efforts.
“I was shocked,” Cox said of McCain’s behavior. “I thought I was going to be the last liberal alive defending John McCain, because I actually have a lot of respect for him. He’s someone I like personally very much. But his behavior during the hearing was juvenile. It was snitty and disrespectful … (and) it’s definitely not in keeping what he’s said in the past.”
Cox added: “For a man of such physical courage to fail at moral courage is sad.”
McCain’s shift on DADT comes at a time when his wife Cindy McCain and daughter Meghan McCain have both come out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage. But Cox said the political divide within the McCain family is not surprising.
“I don’t think their relationships were ever particularly close,” Cox said of the McCain family.
Cox speculated that McCain might be moving further to the right because he faces an upcoming primary challenge from former U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, a far-right Republican with close ties to the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Cox said the arguments McCain and Sessions outlined for opposing the repeal of DADT will not resonate with the American public, which supports ending the ban by a 75 percent majority. “If (these) are an example of what the right is going to use, they’re unacceptable arguments,” Cox said. “They’re not going to work.”
