Obama aggressively defends 'don't ask, don't tell' just 13 days after promising to end it

Just 13 days passed between Obama telling the A-list homosexuals assembled at a Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C., on October 10 that he will get “don’t ask, don’t tell” repealed so that homosexuals can serve openly in the U.S. military — see the video above — and his latest betrayal of that pledge. On Friday, Oct. 23, the Obama administration filed a vigorous defense of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that apparently was being drafted at the same time Obama was stating his opposition to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Of course, no one who follows Obama closely is even a little surprised to find that he stoutly maintains mutually exclusive positions on an issue simultaneously.

I received the following notice on Saturday evening from the Facebook group of the Log Cabin Republicans (see below for the description of the group) — this happened Friday, 10/23, and I can’t find a peep about it in the news or blogosphere on Google in the first few minutes of Sunday, Oct. 25 (the boldfacing is mine and I fixed some punctuation):

Obama Administration Aggressively Defends ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy in Court

UNUSUAL MOVE GOES BEYOND GOVERNMENT’S ‘DUTY TO DEFEND’

Christian Berle, October 23 at 6:42pm

(Los Angeles, CA) — In a move consistent with other contradictory behavior on LGBT issues, the Obama administration has directed its Justice Department to file an extraordinary motion to get Log Cabin Republicans’ lawsuit against the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law thrown out of court, despite a federal judge’s ruling that it can proceed. The 11th-hour move for interlocutory appeal, which seeks to stay proceedings and block discovery, was surprisingly formulated at the same time that President Obama was reassuring LGBT activists that he still firmly opposes the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner earlier this month in Washington, DC.

“After President Obama clearly stated that his highest priority for the LGBT community was to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, it is quite troubling to see this ‘about face,'” said Terry W. Hamilton, national chairman of the Log Cabin Republicans. “This aggressive move by President Obama’s Justice Department seriously undermines not only his commitment to our community and to the defense of our nation, but it also casts doubt on the motives of those at the highest levels of LGBT leadership in Washington who refuse to criticize the President over this double speak.”

The case in question, Log Cabin Republicans vs. the United States of America, is the first direct challenge to the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law filed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas. It is also the only contemporary legal challenge to this law to succeed at the district court level. One of the injured parties named in the case, Alexander Nicholson, is a former U.S. Army Human Intelligence Collector who speaks multiple languages, including Arabic, and who was fired because of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law just six months after 9/11. Another injured party in the case, listed simply as ‘John Doe’ currently serves in the Armed Forces and would face a discharge if his identity were revealed.

“These continued obstructions launched by the Obama Justice Department are as insulting to the LGBT community as they are a serious threat to our military readiness,” remarked Log Cabin Republicans spokesman Charles T. Moran. “The constant delay tactics and attempts to have this case hurriedly dismissed without any discovery or argument would be a disservice to all those who have been involuntarily and abruptly fired under this law.”

District Court Judge Virginia Phillips of the Central District Court of California will consider the defendant’s motion on November 16th, 2009. The law firm of White & Case LLP has been representing Log Cabin Republicans since the case was initially filed over 4 ½ years ago

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Log Cabin Republicans promotes legislation to provide basic fairness for gay and lesbian Americans and works to build a more inclusive GOP. The 30-year old organization has state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time office in Washington, DC, a federal political action committee and state political action committees.

Inspite of the dizzying speed of Obama’s about-faces on issues regarding homosexuality equality, the Senate Armed Forces Committee will be holding hearings on “don’t ask, don’t tell” in November, according to a spokesperson for the committee’s chairman, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, who supports repeal of the policy.

Update, 10/25/09: HillBuzz included this story in their Saturday, 10/24, open thread — here’s a sample, but I recommend reading the whole thing (if you do, the reference to “Man’s Country” is about a gay bar that a tall, thin black man, who boasted about being an Illinois state senator, frequented for gay sex):

… here’s word from the Log Cabins that while Dr. Utopia has been lying to the LGTBQ community at events like that Human Rights Campaign dinner, his Attorney General, notorious race-baiter Eric Holder, has been ordering the Justice Department to aggressively dismiss lawuits Log Cabins have filed against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT).

Yup, Dr. Utopia is saying one thing to his gay audience — that he wants to end DADT — while his minions do the exact opposite. The operative case is Log Cabin Republicans vs. The United States of America, which is currently the only active legal challenge to DADT to make it passed the district level. One of the complainants is an Army Human Intelligence Collector who speaks multiple foreign languages, including Arabic, and was booted from the Army after 9/11 because he likes guys. With Islam trying to destroy the West and kill Americans, declaring war on us, the United States is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars training specialists in intelligence gathering and Arabic only to boot them once some rival outs them and gets them tossed out of the service.

That’s just poor business and money management at its core.

And it’s also ridiculous because all of us here have dated at least one service man each…and we can assure you none of them ever turned up on anyone’s Gaydar. We live in Chicago near the Great Lakes Naval Base and meet sailors out just about every night in Boystown. For every gay man or woman (and it’s actually lesbians who are tossed out the most) who gets booted under DADT, there are probably hundreds of other LGBs who serve their full tours of duty…so long as they don’t run against some nemesis who outs them for their own reasons.

Which is what seems to be happening. Is someone in your unit making you look bad because they work harder than you and do a better job than your lazy sorry ass? Want them gone so you can be the cock of the walk? Tell Sarge how much he loves the Santa hat scene in Jarhead.

And Instapundit pounced on the story Saturday evening, so it is starting to get some traction.

Update, 10/25/09, 4:05 pm EDT: Pam’s House Blend quotes the transcript of Obama’s address to the Human Rights Campaign from two weeks ago promising to end DADT and asks WTF, which strikes me as a far too muted reaction. The Progressive Puppy has gotten his teeth into the story here. John Aravosis at AmericaBlogGay just quotes Pam’s House Blend, so no link for him. Mostly, I hear crickets.