Elaine Donnelly's Last Gasp??

Like many Christianists, Elaine Donnelly of The Center for Military Readiness has made a career of sorts out of the persecution of LGBT Americans who seek to serve in the nation's military. Never mind that Donnelly has no military background herself and zero qualifications of any kind to speak with authority on the subject matter (something that is all too typical of Christianist who set up organizations with official sounding names and then give themselves lofty titles). As Pam Spaulding reports, after her disastrous performance before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee earlier this year that brought her broad based ridicule, Donnelly is trying to stir up veterans groups to bolster her sinking ship (and soon to be non-existent job) via a secret briefing in Washington, D.C. As Pam notes, what will Donnelly do to occupy herself once DADT is repealed? Seems, however, that the secret is out and here are highlights from the Huffington Post:

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Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has learned that The Center for Military Readiness, a right-wing activist group based in Michigan, has invited leaders of prominent veterans services organizations to a Washington, D.C. briefing on Thursday that the organization has tried to keep secret. The event, outlined in a letter obtained exclusively by PFLAG, is described as "a private, off-the-record briefing" to strategize about how to battle efforts to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual troops.

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It has long been a high-priority of Donnelly and other extremists to organize veterans services organizations to counter momentum in Congress, which has shifted to pro-repeal advocates over the past few years. As more and more veterans - such as retired Joint Chiefs Chairman John Shalikashvili and Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy - have joined efforts to topple the law, Donnelly has become increasingly desperate to find allies who will join her in advocating for the continued exclusion of lesbian and gay Americans from the armed forces. Those efforts have failed miserably.

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Thursday's briefing in Washington is a last-minute, last-ditch effort by Donnelly to try and curry some small measure of influence on Capitol Hill. To do so, she is likely to give VSO leaders misinformation, as she has done with the press and the public, in order to mislead them on the issue and attempt to win them over to her side. As polls of military personnel show that young service members and veterans are overwhelmingly comfortable and ready to serve with gay colleagues, she is attempting to reach out to the older, more conservative VSO membership to try and rally support for her cause.

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Donnelly, who has no military credentials, and is increasingly seen as nothing more than a homophobic bullhorn by Hill staff, is no doubt also trying to save face following a disastrous hearing in Congress earlier this summer.

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Our national security depends on having the best and brightest on duty, and anyone who cares about the best interests of our armed forces cares who wins. That's why so many people are campaigning to repeal this law . . . and why Elaine Donnelly is just left desperately grasping at straws.