Don’t ask: Obama’s Bill Clinton moment

President Barack Obama has called himself a “fierce advocate” for gays and lesbians, but he has done little to advocate for gay rights since taking office in January. In fact, his choice of the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical and anti-gay pastor, to offer the invocation at his inauguration can be seen as a slap in the face to the gay community.

On two of the most publicized issues — gay marriage and gays in teh military — he has remained remarkably silent. His promise to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Clinton-era compromise that The New York Times says has “caused its own kind of damage to military readiness.”

Thousands of service members have been discharged from duty at a time when the military is stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The loss of highly skilled interpreters and intelligence analysts has been especially damaging.

He has gone so far as to have his adminstration argue on behalf of a policy he has publicly denounced — a manuever that would make Bill Clinton blush.

The best hope for overturning the policy, therefore, is Congress, where there is legislation pending.

Here is Rush Holt, D-NJ, the Congressman who represents much of Central Jersey and is cosponsoring the bill, on Rachel Maddow the other night, talking about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”:

Holt can be cautious and I think he held his tongue some in this interview, but he also made it clear that we can no longer wait. It’s 2009, after all, and the fact that there are public institutions off-limits to gays and lesbians is morally indefensible.