Using Outdated Quotes from Colin Powell, Obama Justice Department Files Brief to Support DADT

[FreeState]

Its beyond time this kind of crap comes to an end. I wish the Justice Department would stop acting like first class homophobic assholes.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/using-outdated-quotes-from-colin-powell-obama-justice-department-files-brief-to-support-dont-askdont-tell-policy.html

Using 17-year-old language from Gen. Colin Powell (ret.) that the former Joint Chiefs Chairman says he no longer believes, President Obama's Justice Department filed a brief in court this week supporting the military's "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy, which the president has said he wants to rescind.

Responding to a constitutional challenge to the law prohibiting gay and lesbian troops from serving openly in the military in the case Log Cabin Republicans v. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Assistant Attorney General Tony West cited previous court findings that Congress "could have rationally found the DADT policy to be necessary to 'further military effectiveness by maintaining unit cohesion, accommodating personal privacy and reducing sexual tension.'"

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that the Obama administration is committed to overturning the law, but the Justice Department regularly defends statutes that are currently law, regardless of the president's support for the laws. Said Schmaler in a statement: “In this case the Department is defending the statute, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. The Department does not pick and choose which federal laws it will defend based on any one Administration’s policy preferences.”

That explanation did not cut the mustard with many gay rights advocates, including Richard Socarides, a former White House adviser for President Bill Clinton, who asked, "What is (Attorney General) Eric Holder thinking? Is the Department of Justice on auto piliot? The president campaigns against 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' and says it's unconstitutional. Gates and (Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike) Mullen say it lacks integrity. What is he thinking when he uses homophobic language - 18 years old - from Colin Powell - who himself is now against it. Inexplicable."....

[katandmoon]

1. It's getting awfully crowded under that bus!

[EFerrari]

2. WTF. I want to say that we need another source because abc is the Faux

of the networks but, wtf.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Rachel mentioned this last night.

It's real.

[EFerrari]

12. This is completely unacceptable.

:grr:

[Doctor_J]

3. Sounds like they're triangulating again

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that the Obama administration is committed to overturning the law, but the Justice Department regularly defends statutes that are currently law, regardless of the president's support for the laws.

Uhhh...what?

[FreeState]

4. I know thats a flat out lie n/t

[elleng]

8. and that's not 'triangulating,' as I suggested elsewhere.

They're doing their job as lawyers.

[EFerrari]

11. Do you know any lawyers? I've never met a single lawyer

that went to court to argue some abstract principle out of altruism. Never. And I've translated for hundreds of lawyers.

[Qutzupalotl]

14. They're defending the U.S. Government

and the law as it stands.

Obama wants congress to overturn or change the law. Good! But he runs the executive branch, not the judicial.

[EFerrari]

15. Oh, please. n/t

[Qutzupalotl]

20. You're welcome.

[elleng]

21. Thanks, Qut!

Have stated my position, I think I'm outta here!

[elleng]

16. I am a lawyer, my father is a lawyer,

my brother is a lawyer, my cousin is a lawyer, and 2 of my uncles were lawyers.

Sorry we haven't met.

[EFerrari]

17. Then what on Earth are you talking about?

The DoJ has the choice not to do this sh!t. They should be past masters of stringing things out or they should be fired for incompetence.

No, it's clear that the administration wants it both ways as it wants so many other things.

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. What abstract principle are you talking about?

The law says the military may (does not say must) discharge gay military personnel who reveal their sexual orientation. That's what the justice department is doing - supporting the law as it stands.

[Starry Messenger]

5. OFFS.

[elleng]

6. I know its not easy,

but they're doing the job of lawyers, whether many like it or not. The point they're making is, simply, that the court they're referring to COULD HAVE RATIONALLY FOUND, at the time, that the policy was rational.

[FreeState]

9. This case is happening now, it does not matter the bigotry, which is never rational, is old n/t

[EFerrari]

10. The policy was NEVER rational. n/t

[DURHAM D]

13. Would you draw a principled line anywhere when it comes to the W.H.?

[Laughing Mirror]

18. Lies and deceit

And they call themselves the Justice Department.

If this is justice ...

[wolfgirl]

22. This is kinda disappointing; until I thought some more on it.

The Justice Dept. is obligation (MUST0 defend US laws (ugly as that may be). However, it is very interesting how they chose to make that defense. The argument they use (quoting Powell from 17 yrs ago) gives an opportunity for the other side to quote Powell from this year in rebuttal. Think about that for a moment. If feels as if the Justice Dept. attorneys just handed the other side their winning argument....

What do you think?