When Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) unveiled his Military Readiness Enhancement Act a month ago, it didn’t seem like the kind of bill that stood much of a shot. Meehan is right on the substance, of course, and he framed the issue extremely well, but in the current political atmosphere, undoing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy seemed like too tall an order.
The bill continues to be a real long shot, but it’s nevertheless nice to see the bill pick up a few Republican co-sponsors.
At odds with her party’s leadership, Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami is urging the Pentagon to allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the military — a direct challenge to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“We’ve tried the policy. I don’t think it works. And we’ve spent a lot of money enforcing it,” said Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, who Tuesday co-sponsored a bill allowing gays to serve.
“We investigate people. Bring them up on charges. Basically wreck their lives,” she told The Herald. “People who’ve signed up to serve our country. We should be thanking them.”
I know; I couldn’t believe it either.
Ros-Lehtinen, who’s always been pretty progressive on gay issues, particularly for a Republican, is now one of three — count ’em, three — GOP House members to sign onto the legislation. The other two are Connecticut’s Chris Shays and Arizona’s Jim Kolbe.
But Ros-Lehtinen’s enthusiastic support for the bill is clearly the most interesting and, according to Steve Ralls, communications director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the most important.
“Her endorsement, her sponsorship of the bill, is going to lead a lot of other moderate Republicans in the House to come on board,” he said.
That may be a bit of a stretch. There really aren’t that many more moderate Republicans in the House, and even if the three or four left did sign on, it wouldn’t prompt Hastert and DeLay to hold a floor vote.
Nevertheless, while I know better than to think this bill will be taken seriously in this Congress, proponents are laying the groundwork for change in the future. Kudos to the Republicans with the good sense to see the need to replace this nonsensical policy.