WP Column Trashes Elaine Donnelly

Regular readers know that I despise Elaine Donnelly, President of the so-called Center for Military Readiness, a Christianist created organization with two goals: (1) demonize gays constantly and keep them out of the military, and (2) push women from the military, apparently so that they remain in the home barefoot and pregnant. Would that Donnelly would take her own advice on the latter issue (although she looks so frigid, I suspect getting pregnant might be a challenge even if she were younger). Fortunately, at the hearings on DADT yesterday, Donnelly seems to have been at her most loopy and and came across as a nut case - which in my opinion is definitely the case - and spouted off lunatic statements notwithstanding her 100% lack of ANY experience in the military herself. Donnelly represents the true face and mindset of today's Christianists. People truly need to understand how crazy and consumed with hate these folks truly are and not just for gays - fortunately Donnelly helped educate the Armed Services Committee yesterday. In today's Washington Post, Dana Millbank lets Donnelly have it. Here are some highlights:

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Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military. The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday. Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and also extended an invitation to Donnelly, who has been working for years to protect our fighting forces from the malign influence of women.

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Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

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Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier. . . . . Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect. Though there's no expectation that Congress will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

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Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) pointed a finger at Darrah and glared at Donnelly. "Would you please tell me, Miss Donnelly, why I should give one twit about this woman's sexual orientation, when it didn't interfere one bit with her service?" Donnelly said something about "forced intimacy." Shays cut her off. "You're saying she has no right to serve her country because she happens to have a different sexual orientation than you."

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It was tempting to think that Donnelly had been chosen by Democrats to sabotage the case against open military service for homosexuals. But Republicans had consented to the witness panel, . . . . But it was Donnelly, founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, who amused lawmakers the most.

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She further explained the "absolutely devastating" effect of homosexuals "introducing erotic factors" and made a comparison to Sen. Larry Craig's adventure at the Minneapolis airport. She said admitting gays to the military would be "forced cohabitation" and a policy of "relax and enjoy it." Murphy puffed his cheeks with air to calm himself. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) said she was "shocked." Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) said she was "embarrassed." Shays said it was "scurrilous" of Donnelly to talk about the menace of homosexual misconduct, because it would be punished the same way the military punishes heterosexual misconduct.

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Donnelly said something about her respect for the service of gay veterans. "How do you respect their service?" Shays demanded. "You want them out." Donnelly seemed to have unified the lawmakers -- against her. The next questioner was Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), a retired Navy vice admiral. "I couldn't ask it better than you did," he told Shays.