February 17, 2010

Guess who's coming to swarm?

Posted by: Chris

Yesterday I joined those who sponsored a blog swarm of the Human Rights Campaign, albeit focusing Solmonese, Smith & Co. on Congress, not exclusively on the White House. As one reader points out, it was not particular efficient to ask people to lobby HRC to get them to lobby President Obama to get him to lobby Congress.

Support for the swarm was broad and included at least one surprise entrant, considering its target was a gay rights group, not Congress: another gay group, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network:

We join the Swarm’s call for DADT repeal this year. The best way to erase the law from the books in 2010 is for there to be a provision included in the defense authorization budget that nixes the law and replaces it with a policy of nondisrimination. We urge the President and Congress to include this provision in the defense authorization budget bill in the coming weeks. (This defense bill is currently being drafted.)

HRC reaction to the swarm, meanwhile took the form of an email from spokesman Brad Luna, who argued that the bloggers were asking for something HRC has already done:

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has to be repealed this year. That has been the Human Rights Campaign’s position from the start, and at this point there is no one in the White House who does not know it. We and the community to whom we are accountable agree: This is the year.

We firmly support including repeal in the annual Department of Defense Authorization bill, and have not only indicated as much, but continue to make that case, all while working to gain support for the Military Readiness Enhancement Act....

We have been lobbying the White House relentlessly, and we’ve seen more movement in recent weeks than in the previous 16 years. Our nation’s top defense officials testified, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed. That did not happen in a vacuum.

These events are just the start. There is a clear path to repeal, and that’s the one we’re on.

Note that missing entirely from the HRC response is any mention whatsoever of the other end of Pennsylvania, where that "clear path to repeal" must next pass through. Owing to the misguided focus of the swarm on President Obama, rather than Congress, HRC wriggles its way free without angering (or pressuring) its Democratic friends on Capitol Hill.

Tags: DADT, Don't Ask Don't Tell, gays in the military, HRC blog swarm, Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, SLDN