White House pressed again on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs met again Friday with several questions from the White House press corps about the military's continued policy of dismissing openly gay service members.

The first questioner lumped the president's failure thus far to address the gay ban into a group of other pledges that the president has changed course on, such as his decision this week not to release the photos of detainee abuse. In other words, some in the mainstream press are starting to view the president's inaction on "don't ask, don't tell" as the reversal of a campaign promise. Gibbs avoided answering the DADT piece of that inquiry by responding more directly to the issue of releasing the photos.

But the second questioner was more direct.

Q: The president said that releasing the detainee photos poses a danger to our troops, but doesn't dismissing otherwise qualified soldiers pose a danger to some degree.

Gibbs: What I talked about in terms of "dont' ask, don't tell" -- the president, as you know, supports changing that because he strongly believes that it does not serve our national interests. He agrees with former members of the Joint Chiefs in that determination.

But unlike the photos, the, the only durable solution to "don't ask, don't tell" is through the legislative process, and the president is working with Congress and the members of the Joint Chiefs to ensure that that happens.

Q: But couldn't he, in the meantime, put a moratorium on these discharges until that can be accomplished.

Gibbs: The president's determined that that's not… that is… that's not the way to seek any sort of lasting or durable solution to the public policy problem that we have.

Q: How do you respond to the criticism though that dismissing qualified linguists endangers the troops?

Gibbs: I would, I would… I think, I would respond by saying that the president has long believed that the policy does not serve our national interests.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid84348.asp

And if Obama reversed himself completely, the same corporate media would badger him with a new set of questions.

The White House really needs to review who is allowed press credential privileges.

they question the governments action - how else are we going to hold our government accountable if we dont allow freedom of the press?

in their dealings with their betters!

They are so pesky.

Who indeed. :sarcasm:

Only fishing for info the White House wants to release? I'm glad there are reporters asking the difficult questions.

with his promise to repeal DADT.

Well, I hope the people getting fired now get some hope of being brought back if DADT ever gets overturned. Hopefully they won't be too old to serve by then.

after they were like little wimps when it came to questioning Snowe and especially Perino.

And it matters not who offers such defenses.