Friday, May 28, 2010

As House Votes Contingent Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Backwards Jeff Flake Marches the Wrong Way


Yesterday, in a very belated correction of decades of discrimination, the House voted for a contingent repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, finally recognizing that the sexual orientation of American military troops is irrelevant to their ability to serve our country.

Rep. Jeff Flake voted no. As we've seen earlier this week, often when only a handful of Republicans are in the minority, Flake will be with that outlier group. But yesterday he didn't have the courage and good sense of Ron Paul and the other four Republican House members who stood up for decency.

As Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, and a sponsor of the companion Senate bill, noted:

The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy doesn’t serve the best interests of our military and doesn’t reflect the best values of our country. Bottom line: thousands of service members have been pushed out of the U.S. military not because they were inadequate or bad soldiers, sailors, Marines or airmen but because of their sexual orientation. And that’s not what America is all about.


Of course, out-of-step radical politician Jeff Flake has never understood what America is all about.