Sources: Intrepid Prez Touted for Navy Secretary (Bill White - openly gay man)

[THUNDER HANDS]

Source: Newsday

Bill White, president of Manhattan's Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, is being touted by some congressional and former military leaders as secretary of the Navy in the Obama administration, sources said.

The Point Lookout native would be the first openly gay chief of a branch of the military.

White, who has been at the Intrepid in various roles since 1992, has not served in the military but he has extensive contacts in the armed forces. These stem both from his work at the newly renovated museum, based on a historic aircraft, and other projects run by the Intrepid foundation that support men and women serving in the military.

The possibility of White heading the Navy is reportedly being pushed by such heavyweight political and former military figures as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) and Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1997 to 2001.


Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-linavy1219,0,5114217.story

[HeraldSquare212]

1. Huh?

[Liberal Veteran]

2. That can't be true. I have it on good authority that Obama never misses a chance to diss gay people

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Strategic leaking and deliberate misdirection

Pissed off about the Warren invocation? Wait a minute! Look over there!!

[Liberal Veteran]

4. I read about this before I even heard of the Warren thing.

But if it makes you feel better to think of it as a smokescreen, carry on.

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Good for you. But the dateline for the story is TODAY.

It may even be true. But the timing of the item is designed to defuse and deflect.
It's damage control, pure and simple.

[cliffordu]

6. I know!!! Let's come up with the scummiest possible explanation for what the

prez-elect is going to do!!!!!


It'll be just like freeperville!!!!!

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but that's how things work

It's known as news management, and politicians have been engaging in it for ages.

In 1964 when Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party took to the floor of the Democratic Convention to tell a harrowing tale of trying to vote, her testimony was an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and to then President Lyndon Johnson in particular. So Johnson called an impromptu news conference in a blatant attempt to pre-empt live coverage of Hamer's speech on all the major networks. He succeeded temporarily, but Hamer's riveting testimony was covered by all three networks on the evening news later that day.

On October 23, 1983, the U.S. suffered a horrible shock when a Muslim suicide bomber destroyed a Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 240 American servicemen. Two days later, Ronald Reagan invaded the tiny island nation of Grenada in order to "liberate" a small group of American medical students studying abroad. The country, which had been reeling from the loss of its troops, suddenly shifted into jingoistic high gear as the U.S. conquered a nation a little less than twice the size of Washington, D.C.

Heck, at least Obama didn't invade Grenada!

[ooglymoogly]

8. How bout just the facts and common sense? nt

[Roy]

9. USS INTREPID, CVS-11.... My last duty station...

Before mustering out in 1965.

Lots of memories left aboard that tub.

[maseman]

10. Gay Man for Navy Secretary?

Source: MSNBC/Newsweek

As gay activists protest the selection of evangelical megapastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, they could have reason to cheer a future Obama announcement. Sources tell NEWSWEEK that the president-elect is considering the appointment of the first openly gay chief of a military branch.

Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, is being backed by congressional and former military leaders to be the next secretary of the Navy. Among White's vocal supporters are retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat whose district includes the newly renovated Intrepid museum which sits on an aircraft carrier in the Hudson River. Nadler says members of Obama's transition team have reached out to him about White. "They're clearly vetting him," he tells NEWSWEEK.



Read more: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/poweringup/archive/2008/12/18/gay-man-for-navy-secretary.aspx

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Wow. I applaud this.

[yurbud]

11. Obama must have gotten a donation from the Village People (this will revive their careers)

[aquart]

12. Oh, God, would I love that!

For Ron Marini, one of the most obviously gay men on the planet, and a United States Navy sailor, long, long, ago.

[IntravenousDemilo]

13. Hi sailor, new in town?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw

[DesertFlower]

14. thank you for that post.

i love the Village People. :-)

[CitizenPatriot]

15. fantastic news- this would be great:-) nt

[Baby Snooks]

16. Who needs equal rights under the law?

Equal rights? Who needs equal rights under the law? We will have a gay Secretary of the Navy to go along with don't ask, don't tell. Which of course will not apply to the Secretary of the Navy.

Can I get my vote back? I want to write in Mickey Mouse after all.

[kenfrequed]

17. sorry

But until I hear it as a certainty this is a fantasy "He's on the short list" story.