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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Says Nunn: It might be time to take another look at ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Georgia senator Sam Nunn, who helped push through the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that established the terms under which gays and lesbians could serve in the U.S. military, said Tuesday that it’s time to review the policy.
“I think [when] 15 years go by on any personnel policy, it’s appropriate to take another look at it — see how it’s working, ask the hard questions, hear from the military. Start with a Pentagon study,” Nunn said.
The former chairman of the Senate Armed Services wouldn’t say whether he personally supported putting an end to the policy.
Nunn’s comments followed a seminar in Atlanta on national service, after which reporters also asked him about the chances that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama might choose him as his running mate.
Nunn, who retired from the U.S. Senate in 1996, gave the same answer he had last month. “I think it’s highly improbable that I would be invited to be on the ticket, and I think it’s also highly improbable that I would be going back into government,” he said.
During the seminar on national service, Nunn made several references to Charles Moskos, a military sociologist who has advocated a return to military service for young people. Moskos, who died of cancer on Saturday, also participated in the formulation of the 1993 policy.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” is a short-hand reference to the federal statute that prohibits homosexuals in the military from speaking of their sexual orientation. In return, commanders aren’t permitted to open investigations into what the military might find to be illicit conduct.
When the policy was first adopted in the early days of the Clinton administration, military experts said openly gay military personnel would harm “unit cohesion.”
Since then, the policy has been sharply criticized by many gays as an abridgement of their right to free expression.
Moskos admitted that the policy was flawed. “It’s like what Churchill said about democracy — it’s the worst system possible, except for all the other ones,” he said in 2006.
Nunn said that many people overlook the fact that, before the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was adopted, gays and lesbians were barred from the military unless they gave a false answer to questions about their sexual orientation.
“People don’t understand that that was the beginning point. We basically made it possible for people to serve honorably in the military without lying on the application,” Nunn said.
The former senator said a new look at the policy is “appropriate.”
“But first and foremost we have to put national security on the front burner. That’s particularly true when we’re in a war in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Nunn said.
“Certainly there are a very large number of gay and lesbian men and women serving honorably in our military today. And they’re doing it within the existing law.”
Pressed for his position on the matter, Nunn said, “I’m not advocating anything — except I’m saying the policy was the right policy for the right time, and times change. It’s appropriate to take another look.”
Many conservatives have said it might be time to retire “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last year, before he decided on a Libertarian run for president, Bob Barr wrote:
”The bottom line here is that, with nearly a decade and a half of the hybrid “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to guide us, I have become deeply impressed with the growing weight of credible military opinion which concludes that allowing gays to serve openly in the military does not pose insurmountable problems for the good order and discipline of the services….
“Three-quarters of returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets said in a December 2006 Zogby poll that they are “personally comfortable” interacting with gay people. A majority of those who knew someone gay in their unit said the person’s presence had no negative impact on unit morale.”
Photo credit: Renee Hannans/AJC
The Associated Press contributed some of the above material.
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The shove behind the resignation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Monday, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced a shake-up of his House floor leadership.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer today provides the back-story. The governor’s decision to dump state Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) from his leadership team was an outgrowth of the fight over transportation — and money for that infantry museum near Fort Benning.
Writes the newspaper:
Ten days ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue called local Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, to Atlanta for a meeting.
Smith, one of the governor’s House floor leaders, didn’t know what the meeting was about, but it didn’t take him long to get the message.
“I saw where it was going,” said Smith, chairman of the powerful House Transportation Committee.
The end result was Smith agreed to step aside as assistant administration floor leader, a position he has held since 2005. On Monday, Perdue appointed Rep. Jimmy Pruett, R-Eastman, to replace Smith.
“We mutually agreed,” Smith said. “He agreed to find someone to spend 100 percent of their time as floor leader and I agreed to spend 100 percent of my time as Transportation Committee chairman.”
In the fight to make Gena Abraham commissioner of the state Department of Transportation last year, Smith was the rival candidate backed by House Speaker Glenn Richardson. Smith also put forward a plan to let regions such as metro Atlanta to tax themselves in order to spend more money on fighting congestion.
One senses that things went from bad to worse. According to the Ledger-Enquirer:
Last month, Perdue used the line-item veto to remove $3 million from the state budget that would have gone to the Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park. Smith had pushed to get the money in the state budget. He said he had not talked to the governor’s office prior to the veto.
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Sonny Perdue and his fresh target
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One senses that there are some interesting discussions going on in the Teilhet household this week. Or even more interesting silences.
The first hint was Sunday in a piece that appeared under Gov. Sonny Perdue’s byline. The article defended the administration, which has been hit with some bruising criticism for the botched Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.
“Democratic policies, like those recently espoused in editorials by former Gov. Roy Barnes and state Rep. Rob Teilhet, are a rehash of past failures.”
Now, Perdue’s criticism of Roy Barnes is understandable and hardly news. Barnes has served as an unnerving Banquo’s ghost at Perdue’s dinner table for six years.
But Teilhet is a fresh target. And he happens to be husband to Heather Hedrick, one of Perdue’s top aides — who is taking a bit of family leave after delivering twins this spring.
Teilhet has also been unloading lately, in the manner of someone looking to rise in the world. On Sunday, Perdue was responding to this op-ed piece by Teilhet, which had appeared in the AJC days earlier.
Teilhet wrote:
“I believe that our problems with education can be traced to one significant cause. Over the past six years, Republicans in the General Assembly have consistently cut education funding by more than $1.6 billion. This year alone, the cuts to our schools amounted to more than $90 million. Now, after all these cuts, we see the effects of immature, irresponsible education policy.”
Teilhet, who is the deputy House minority whip, was also the voice of Democrats in today’s piece about Perdue’s decision to freeze the gas tax.
“We’re glad the governor has agreed with us and decided to suspend the gas tax increase, which Democrats called for in the middle of May,” the young lawyer is quoted as saying.
Also this morning, at InsiderAdvantage, Teilhet answers Perdue and other Republicans on education:
“If excuses were well-educated children, Georgia’s schools would be the envy of the nation. “Before the ink was dry on the recent batch of CRCT scores that showed profoundly disappointing results in math, science, and social studies, excuses for the poor results were pouring out of the Department of Education and the Georgia General Assembly.”
Busy, busy, busy.
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