Get out your smelling salts. Bob Barr, a former far right GOP member of Congress has an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that argues that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy against gays in the military needs to be ended. Here's portions of Barr's column:
"As a conservative Republican member of Congress from 1995 to 2003, I was hardly a card-carrying member of the gay-rights lobby. I opposed then, and continue to oppose, same-sex marriage, or the designation of gays as a constitutionally protected minority class. Service in the armed forces is another matter. The bottom line here is that, with nearly a decade and a half of the hybrid "don't ask, don't tell" policy to guide us, I have become deeply impressed with the growing weight of credible military opinion which concludes that allowing gays to serve openly in the military does not pose insurmountable problems for the good order and discipline of the services.
...Asked about reconsideration of the don't ask, don't tell policy in favor of a more open and honest approach, the simplistic responses by several Republican presidential candidates left me -- and I suspect many others -- questioning whether those candidates really even understood the issue, or were simply pandering to the perceived "conservative base." The fact is, equal treatment of gay and lesbian service members is about as conservative a position as one cares to articulate."
Barr, once a Republican and now a Libertarian, says that the unnecessary discharges hurt the military, "an institution conservatives claim to love." He also says the ban is a waste of money and that the invasions of privacy related to the ban are an infringement on conservative values.
While he's generally not been a favorite with me, that someone like Barr can see the idiocy and unfairness of the current policy is encouraging. I am sure some wingnuts are having hissy fits.
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