DADT Repeal Update: Can John McCain Talk to the Dead?

As promised last month, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) this week introduced legislation into the US Senate that aims to repeal the military’s anti-gay policy ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT) that bans lesbian and gay personnel from serving while being open about their sexuality. In a related twist, it seems Senator John McCain – who opposes the repeal – may have become a real life ghost whisperer capable of passing on messages from the afterlife. More on this below.

First, introduced into the Senate on Wednesday, ‘The Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010′ is designed as a counterpart to similar legislation of the same name that has unfortunately stalled in the House. To date, the Senate version of the bill enjoys the support of thirteen cosponsors including Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Carl Levin of Michigan, Mark Udall of Colorado and Roland Burris of Illinois.

Several of the bill’s sponsors spoke about the importance of the repeal at Wednesday’s press conference:

Currently, the bill has no Republican cosponsors, although Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a long time friend of Lieberman’s, is said to have indicated that she is willing to back a “thorough review” of the proposal. Collins has a history of supporting other LGBT rights legislation and so, while her support is not guaranteed, there may yet be hope that the bill can gain bipartisan backing. Senator Olympia Snowe, also from Maine, has been another name passed around as a potential cosponsor.

Prior to introducing the bill, Senator Lieberman spoke to the Advocate and outlined the main facets of the bill:

Under the Lieberman bill, discharges would become illegal and be halted on the date of enactment, or the moment the president signs the measure. However, the bill also allows the Pentagon approximately a year from February to perform its study, then another 60 days to issue new regulations and another 120 days for the individual service chiefs to issue their regulations.

“On the date of enactment, the discharges would have to stop,” said Lieberman. “Nonetheless, the bill does embrace the study that Secretary Gates has ordered within the department.”

However, the bill will not create a right to benefits for same-sex partners of military personnel due to the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law which bans the government from recognizing same-sex unions.

Meanwhile, Senator Carl Levin’s aggressive pursuit of a moratorium on DADT discharges along side this repeal effort has worried some politicos. They fear that this will undermine the repeal and become a way for Democratic legislators to skirt the problematic nature of the repeal. Furthermore, they rightly point out that without a legislative act, a moratorium only creates a temporary solution that could easily be lifted should the next administration choose to do so.

This worry was further exacerbated when Senator Lieberman reportedly told Wednesday’s press conference:

“We don’t have 60 votes today- that’s our battle… If the votes aren’t there, a moratorium would be a good step.”

While not needed for the legislation to pass, 60 votes would be needed to overcome a filibuster, with the need for a supermajority is looking increasingly more real as Senator John McCain continues to rally more conservative legislators to his cause as a leading voice of opposition to the bill. But, just how many votes does Lieberman think he can muster right now? From the Advocate interview:

“I think a guess right now — and this is really a guess — if this bill came to a vote tomorrow, we’d have over 50 votes and that’s saying a lot,” he said. “Do we have 60? Not clear yet, but possible.”

Also worthy of note is the fact that Lieberman has said he is “open” to the possibility of attaching The Military Readiness Enhancement Act to the pending defense budget bill as an amendment, which would give repeal supporters what Lieberman termed a “procedural advantage” in that it would mean that the burden of creating a supermajority would be on opponents of the repeal. That, or opponents could try to filibuster the defense authorization bill, but given the nature of the budget bill, that seems unlikely. Of course, the Democratic majority of the Senate could be eroded come this year’s congressional elections, meaning that neither path guarantees success.

In the meantime, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has astounded us all. At the last Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, McCain produced a letter that was signed by over a thousand “distinguished retired military leaders” all calling for the ban to stay in place. We didn’t truly appreciate the power that McCain holds, though. Not only does he possess considerable political clout in the Senate, he is also apparently able to speak to, and for, the dead.

After several of the military’s top brass came out in support of a repeal last month, the letter has now become one of the central pillars holding up arguments in opposition to the bill. However, the letter has now been studied by Servicemembers United, and their findings reveal some startling truths.

In an article I recommend reading, DC Agenda reports:

But Servicemembers United’s report — titled, “Flag and General Officers for the Military: A Closer Look” — sheds new light on the letter. Nicholson said one of the most striking discoveries was the age of many signers.

At least one signer, Gen. Louis Menetrey, was deceased when the letter was published and didn’t sign the document himself. According to a footnote on the letter, his wife signed the document for him after his death using power of attorney — six years after Alzheimer’s disease robbed him of the ability to communicate.

“Only a small fraction of these officers have even served in the military during the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ period, much less in the 21st century military,” Nicholson said. “How can these flag officers honestly claim to know how accepting and tolerant 18- and 21-year-olds are today when most of them haven’t been that age themselves since the 1940s and 1950s?”

The report found the average age among is the officers is 74, the oldest living signer is 98, and several signers died in the time since the document was published.

So, unless McCain and Co. are now capable of speaking for the dead and the sadly infirm, this letter doesn’t carry anywhere near as much weight as opponents of the repeal would like to pretend. Furthermore, there’s even word that some of the supposed signatories that are still alive, never, in fact, consented to their names being on the letter, and that they are now seeking to have their names removed.

Here’s Rachel Maddow with the full story (hat tip to Firedoglake for the video):