The Senate Armed Services Committee prepares to hear testimony from the military and civilian Army chiefs on Tuesday.
At Metro Weekly, I report on today’s Senate testimony regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in “The Army Speaks”:
In a blow to those seeking a moratorium on enforcement of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy, both Secretary of the Army John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff George W. Casey, Jr., testified on Tuesday that they oppose such a moratorium during the nearly year-long planned repeal implementation review.
Neither McHugh nor Casey even offered the full-throated support to a repeal of the policy that was given to senators earlier this month by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The testimony came as part of Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Army’s budget request and, specifically, in response to a question by Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and follow-up questioning by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who announced on Monday that he would be taking the lead on the Senate bill to repeal the policy.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political & legal reporter at BuzzFeed and has written for Metro Weekly, The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. He has appeared regularly on television commenting on current affairs, including MSNBC, PBS, HLN & Current. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found