Levin Says He'll Hold DADT Hearings This Month; Leaked Memo Tells Mullen To Wait

[babylonsister]

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/levin-says-hell-hold-dadt-hearings-this-month-leaked-memo-tells-mullen-to-wait.php?ref=fpa

Levin Says He'll Hold DADT Hearings This Month; Leaked Memo Tells Mullen To Wait
Rachel Slajda | January 14, 2010, 3:31PM


Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said yesterday that he plans to hold hearings on repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" later this month.

It's another step toward fulfilling President Obama's promise to end the policy of allowing only closeted gays to serve in the military. Levin also said Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen would be called to testify.

But today, the Pentagon apparently leaked a memo to the Associated Press in which Mullen's lawyers advise him to wait to repeal DADT.

"Now is not the time," the memo reads. "The importance of winning the wars we are in, along with the stress on the force, our body of knowledge and the number of unknowns, demand that we act with deliberation."

Other AP sources, however, said some Pentagon advisers are recommending the military move ahead with the repeal.

"They continue to have a dialogue about the policy and the law," said a spokesman for Mullen.

[Clio the Leo]

1. "The delay could push a decision by Congress to the middle of the next presidential election."

I dont quite understand it all, but that seems to be a key phrase from the AP memo...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/01/ap_exclusive_lawyers_advise_wait_to_lift_gay_ban.php