Is Robert Gibbs going to ever find information to deliver to reporters on DADT?

Oh, so old and tiring

Pam, thanks so much for keeping the pressure on Obama but I think our efforts will now be better spent elsewhere.  Namely, let's move on to Pelosi and Reid and others.  If they don't listen and act, let's move on down the line.  At the same time, keeping score on who supports us and who, like Obama, just gives us more bs excuses and fluffy campaign speeches, months after November.  

Come the end of 2010 we should see some new faces emerging from the crowd who will challenge the status quo with their candidacy for the Presidency, Senate, House and other local 'lesser' seats.  

It is time to look elsewhere for support as these WH guys are full of Hubris and are not about to change.

I say, lead, follow, or get out of our way.  Since they will not lead or follow, that only leaves one last option...get out of our way.


vanhattan

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by: vanhattan @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 22:04:19 PM CDT

I'll listen to Obama...

and keep the pressure on. I think he was very wise to say that to effect change, you have to keep the pressure on. We have to make a loud case for why this is important NOW. Until we make Obama and other Democrats uncomfortable, nothing will change. Exhibit A: see above.

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by: cjfjapan @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 22:27:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

this isn't about Obama

It's about Gibbs. He's been a significant problem in the communications chain, even to the point of disbelief - claiming he hadn't heard either President Clinton's or Jimmy Carter's comments about marriage equality. He has no credibility and that's problematic if he's the voice of the administration.

Reid and Pelosi deserve equal scrutiny because they are the ones who need to get those bills past; we've done plenty of spineless Dems on the Hill posts as well.  

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 22:39:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Say what?

This isn't about Obama?

This isn't about Obama???

The only way that could be true is if

1. the subject were not one as frequently in the press as DADT. I'd cut even this pompous puppet some slack for not knowing more about a subject that only the questioner really cares about; Or

2. this was sometime in January when Gibbs appeared at his first press conference; Or

3. if Gibbs were the first Press Secretary to the President of the United States who entirely free to do his job however he would like rather than programmed to the nearest syllable and verbal pause on how to say or NOT say whatever POTUS wants.

The fish rots from the top down and this one stinks to high heaven.

As for whom we should or should not be focusing on, as for imagining that the sole reason DADT repeal is in the ditch and gays are still being kicked after it even as I write is Congress, I respectfully remind that:

1. On November 29, 2007, Candidate Obama released a statement to the LGBT community promising, among other things, that

"As president, I will work with Congress and place the weight of my administration behind enactment of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which will make nondiscrimination the official policy of the U.S. military. I will task the Defense Department and the senior command structure in every branch of the armed forces with developing an action plan for the
implementation of a full repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

2. Senate Armed Service Committee Chair Carl Levin, one of the few Senators to have tried to stop DADT before it was even voted on in 1993, said in June that

"[Any chance of repeal] requires presidential leadership. This cannot be addressed successfully without that kind of leadership."

3. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as 77 members of the House of Representatives, have asked the President for just that leadership to help them overcome their colleagues influenced by their own and/or their constituents' homophobia, and to freeze discharges under one or more of his LEGAL options until repeal can happen. As have SLDN, HRC, NGLTF, Knights Out, AVER, and Servicemembers United. To the best of my knowledge, Reid has yet to receive even the courtesy of a personal reply, as has Cong. Alcee Hastings and his 76 colleagues.

4. The Obama Administration pressured both Cong. Hastings and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand into withdrawing their efforts to end discharges through amendments to defense appropriations bills.

5. Though he needs NO action by the US Senate and/or House in order to do it, the President not only refuses to use but pretends he has no unilateral and unequivocal power given to his office by Congress in 1983 in the form of 10 United States Code § 12305 - Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Laws Relating to Promotion, Retirement, and Separation - to, despite ANY law, stop the discharge of ANY servicemember in the name of national security.

6. In June, the ostensible Commander-in-Chief declared,

"I believe preventing patriotic Americans from serving their country weakens our national security. ... patriots [discharged under this policy] who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who've served this country well. ... these cases underscore the urgency of reversing this policy not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it is essential for our national security."

Oh, the stink, the stink....

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by: Michael Bedwell @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 00:59:00 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Its far more likely...

that he was prepared to deal with more questions on health care, since that was the most important news item of the day, followed by the continued speculation about Afghanistan.

Given the scope and importance of those items, I'm sure that neither Gibbs nor the communications team are spending a lot of time thinking about that question.

What he should really say, rather authoritatively, is that he has not spoken with the President about the issue given the other issues in play today.

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by: SciFi Geek @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 11:34:10 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Gibbs and 'prepared'

should never be in the same sentence. He sucks and is an embarrassment

Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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by: T2inDC @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 18:25:56 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Gibbs needs to be schooled by Joe Jervis and Mike Signorile

This dude is either clueless, stupid, retarded, drunk, or suffering from dementia.  What is it that he cannot remember something from day to day?  Seems to me that he has some kind of homophobic reaction every time someone asks him a question about our legislative priorities.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.-- Thomas Jefferson

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by: Mykelb @ Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 22:53:46 PM CDT

He knows the various answers to give,

  as well as the answers to keep quiet on.

Question from a reporter:  Mr. Gibbs, what is the President's Plan on doing away with the sad laws of DADT?

Mr. Gibbs:  There is a high pressure system over the Rocky Mountains just north west of Fort Collins which is bringing very cold temperatures all along the foot hills of Colorado.

Reporter:  Mr. Gibbs,  that tells us a lot of what is going on with the weather in those areas.  What does that have to do regarding the repeal of DADT?

Mr. Gibbs: Well, when we can nail down how the weather affects these areas we might have a better system in place to honestly answer questions on DADT.

So for now, plan your week and weekend to enjoy some snow in the Rockies, but also plan for no snow just incase our method is completely wrong.


If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 00:13:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

perhaps..

He does seem to get a bit flustered when the question has to do with anything LGBT.

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by: flyerfier @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 08:40:02 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Who could have anticipated

he'd be asked a question like that after Saturday's speech?

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by: Clarknt67 @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 08:33:07 AM CDT

Maybe the info

got buried along with all that "hope" and "change" people voted for.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 10:37:12 AM CDT