Last week, AMERICAblog launched a sign on letter to President Obama. We asked him to become fully engaged in the effort to pass the DADT language this year. We’ve nearly reached our initial goal for the letter, which you can sign here.
Today, Washington Post’s Perry Bacon wrote about our effort to get Obama engaged in the effort to end DADT:
Liberal groups are demanding the president not shift to the center or look for compromises with Republicans. They are already organizing to protest the idea of an Obama-created commission to reduce the budget deficit and pushing him to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy that bars gay from serving openly in the U.S. military.
“When John McCain was leading the filibuster against the Defense Authorization bill, President Obama didn’t make one phone call to Capitol Hill. But he did find time that day to call the WNBA champs,” wrote John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay, two gay rights activists, in an email appeal to progressives last week that referred to the legislation that includes that the “don’t ask” repeal.
“With the Defense bill being brought up again in the next few weeks, we need President Obama’s leadership once again — this is not the time for him to be MIA. He promised to be our fierce advocate,” the email said.
If the DADT language is going to pass, the President has to step up. His staff concocted the strategy that got us into the legislative mess we’re in. He has to help fix it. You can sign our letter to Obama here.
