Former President Bill Clinton gave a statement after his meeting with President Obama about his tax compromise with the Republicans.
However, after his statement, Clinton began to call on and take questions from the press with Obama at his side. Obama promptly after a few moments and said he had to see Michelle, as he was keeping her “waiting.”
“I don’t want to make her mad, please go,” Clinton told Obama.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that the military would be placed “at the mercy of the courts” by the Senate’s failure to overturn the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law and warned that chaos could result if pending legal challenges are successful.
As he flew back to Washington from a week-long trip to Afghanistan and the Middle East, Gates said he was “disappointed” by the Senate’s defeat of a measure that would have enabled gays and lesbians to serve openly in uniform. He said he hoped Congress would change its mind before it adjourns in the coming days.
“If they are unable to do that,” he told reporters traveling with him, “my greatest worry will be that then we’re at the mercy of the courts and all of the lack of predictability that that entails.”
The Defense Department faces several lawsuits that are working their way through the federal courts and threaten to toss out don’t ask, don’t tell – regardless of whether Congress acts. The Obama administration has been placed in the awkward position of arguing to uphold the law in court, even as Obama lobbies Congress to change it.
Uh, no.
Obama doesn’t have to defend DADT on appeal. Let me repeat that:
OBAMA DOES NOT HAVE TO DEFEND DADT ON APPEAL.
What you see is kabuki – Obama and the Democrats don’t really want to repeal DADT, but they want to make it look like it’s the Republicans fault. In boxing it’s called “taking a dive.”
The frustration with President Barack Obama over his tax cut compromise was palpable and even profane at Thursday’s House Democratic Caucus meeting.
One unidentified lawmaker went so far as to mutter “f— the president” while Rep. Shelley Berkley was defending the package the president negotiated with Republicans. Berkley confirmed the incident, although she declined to name the specific lawmaker.
“It wasn’t loud,” the Nevada Democrat said. “It was just expressing frustration from a very frustrated Member.”
Pardon me while I savor the flavor of this exquisite schadenfreude. Aaaaaah, it’s bitter, and clingy too.
It’s not immediately clear what happened–Majority Leader Harry Reid brought the bill to the floor over the objections of Senator Susan Collins, who appeared to believe that there was a plan to vote on the bill later. Collins ultimately voted for cloture, but several Republicans who had indicated a willingness to vote yes — Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe, John Ensign, Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Scott Manchin — voted no. So the cloture vote failed 57-40. Senator Joe Lieberman, who was furiously working the floor in a futile effort to get to 60 votes, has announced he and Collins will offer a free-standing DADT repeal bill — which will have to make it through both houses from scratch.
More than 60 senators, enough to overcome a filibuster, agreed DADT should end. Military leadership has endorsed repeal. Volumes of empirical evidence, including the Pentagon’s own study and the experiences of the U.S.’s own military allies, show that ending the policy would offer minimal risk of disruption. Yet the vote fell short anyway.
The usual suspects explain how it’s all the Republican’s fault.
It turns out that Sarah Palin’s next overseas trip won’t be to England or Israel, as was widely reported Thursday.
CNN has learned that the former Alaska governor will be traveling to Haiti this weekend with Franklin Graham and his relief organization Samaritan’s Purse.
They will be visiting a cholera clinic, among other stops.
Apparently Hell was booked full so this was the next-closest place.
Our President is taking care of important business:
The Confluence 