By Susan Ferrechio
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Time is running out on Congress lame duck session and on lawmakers opportunity to repeal dont ask dont tell the policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.
And those who want to end the ban are directing their frustration at the Obama administration which they said prolonged the ban by sending mixed signals about the presidents intentions and by failing to push harder for Senate approval.
If Congress adjourns without lifting the ban President Obama will be stuck with an unfulfilled campaign promise and face the possibility that the courts rather than Congress will lift the ban. Obama has fended off attempts by the courts to repeal the ban because he believes the only effective way to permanently end the ban -- and to implement the change at a less disruptive pace than the courts would order -- is to have Congress do so legislatively.
There are issues around dont ask dont tell that the president and I think many people believe are best dealt with through a legislative process and not through a legal system White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev. announced last week that the Senate would try to repeal the ban on gays serving openly by attaching a repeal provision to the must-pass defense authorization bill that senators will consider after their Thanksgiving recess.
But repeal advocates fear Obama and congressional Democrats are doing too little too late. If Democrats fail to repeal the ban in the lame duck session chances of ending the ban anytime soon are greatly diminished. Republicans take control of the House and increase their numbers in the Senate in January and are unlikely to embrace a repeal.
I think the prospects for next year are very grim and bleak Winnie Stachelberg of the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund told reporters recently.
Senate Republicans oppose lifting the ban in the lame duck session. They said they first want to review a Pentagon study on the impact repeal would have on the troops before they vote. That report is due Nov. 30.
Either the president is not fully aware of the lack of action by his team or he is aware of it and hes allowing it said R. Clarke Cooper executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans a gay-rights group. Either way its not good.
Cooper said at least nine GOP senators who are undecided about repealing dont ask dont tell have been hoping to hear from the Obama administration.
Obama last week called Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin D-Mich. to urge him to push for the repeal during the lame duck session but that wasnt enough Cooper added.
Doing a statement or a press release isnt usually what gets it done Cooper said. Sure its nice but there are a number of Republicans who have some parochial military interests in the authorization bill and they have said to me they are leaning toward repeal and they want to hear from the White House. They have some deals they want to strike.
