(via ThinkProgress)
Second Lieutenant Sandy Tsao had sent a letter to Obama back in January on Chinese New Year's day asking him to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
And on Tuesday, May 5, she got a letter back.
As Sandy unwrapped the thick envelope and looked inside, she tearfully fell to her knees. Protected between two pieces of cardboard, the parcel contained a handwritten note from President Obama.
The letter below the fold....
(In case you have trouble reading the handwriting, here's what he wrote.)
Sandy - Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful letter. It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment. — Barack Obama.
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) was on Rachel Maddow's show last night, and said he felt that Congress could move on this legislation in the summer.
As noted in the comments in the ThinkProgress link, there are several reasons why it's preferable that Congress change the law in this regard, rather than have Obama sign an Executive Order calling for the repeal. Like, if all you do is repeal it, then we go back to the previous law on the books, which was even worse for gay people in the military. (Remember, at the time, DADT was seen as a fairly progressive solution.)
But really, I just think it's awesome that Obama personally wrote a letter to Sandy Tsao pledging his commitment to help her out. (And that's why headlines like this are misleading and not helpful.)
I also agree with the first comment in this post that Obama may want to wait until Al Franken is seated before going ahead with this. Because right now, we DON'T have a filibuster-proof majority, and how badly would it suck if he tried to have Congress change the law when it comes to gays in the military, only to have the Senate GOP filibuster it and succeed in doing so (and possibly with the help of a Democrat or two)?
Also, by the summer, we'll have had several months of gay people getting married in at least 5 states (we're all waiting here in Calfornia for the court ruling, and on John Lynch in New Hampshire) without lakes of fire destroying the Earth and four skeletal horsemen descending from the skies. That should help even more in changing peoples' attitudes about gay people.
Totally unrelated-to-diary update: Bill O'Reilly's stalker obsession Amanda Terkel has just written about Duke Energy quitting the right-wing National Association of Manufacturers because NAM is still denying global warming. I still remember Rachel Maddow's very interesting interview with Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers (transcript here), who you might not realize is a lifelong Democrat and Obama supporter, but who has some reservations on the cap-and-trade program. Very good discussion there, which we need more of, on the merits and drawbacks of the proposed solutions.