Bob Gates exploring not enforcing "Don't Ask Don't Tell" at times

Obama is getting a bad rap from the media and the homosexual community on "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT.) Should he abrogate the Rule of Law to prevent injustice to homosexuals who serve honorably in the military? The media and the homosexual community think so. They want immediate results because people are getting hurt and the security of America is being damaged by the injustices daily. The Obama administration is saying that Congressional action is required.

CNN News has a wire story that Secretary of Defense Bob Gates is exploring "...Obama Administration plans to selectively enforce the “don’t ask don’t tell” ban on gays in the military so that some gays could serve."

Here's what Bob Gates says he is doing:

“What we have is a law — be it a policy or a regulation — and as I discovered when I got into it, it’s a very prescriptive law. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination for a lot of flexibility. And so one of the things we’re looking at — is there flexibility in how we apply this law.”
The secretary appears to be proposing interim measures. “If somebody is outed by a third party … does that force us to take an action? And I don’t know the answer to that, and I don’t want to pretend to. But that’s the kind of thing we’re looking at to see if there’s at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed.”

President Obama is catching a lot of flak for not unilaterally taking Presidential action to overturn or refuse to enforce the existing law that requires the Pentagon to discharge homosexuals when they surface or are exposed in the military. If it were a right-wing subject, George Bush showed he was not bound by law that the Congress has passed and the President has signed in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. The misuse of signing statements was just one method the Bush administration got around enforcing law they did not like.

But Obama is a Constitutional Law lawyer, he is very intelligent and capable, and he is simply not a person to take extreme actions on his own except in extreme situations. That's a major reason we elected him President after this last eight years. In spite of the personal injustices currently still being perpetuated on homosexuals in the military who have for one reason or another been accused or exposed as exemplified by Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, this is not a broad "extreme situation" that requires immediate Presidential action that violates the law. Obama is going to apply the Rule of Law, unlike the previous administration. He's right. Congressional action is required.

What Bob Gates is describing is the only set of executive branch actions that can alleviate any of the injustices prior to Congressional action, unless the courts provide an injunction stopping the current enforcement of DADT. The legal backing for such an injunction is either absent or supports the banning of homosexuals, so court action is not on the horizon. This is the best possible action possible prior to the necessary action by Congress. So Congress is where everyone should focus their wrath.

Media? Are you listening? Grow up and get it right. There's nothing complicated about this.

This one of my "Rule of Law" posts. The Rule of Law, together with the U.S. Constitution, are core to what it means to be "an American."I don't think we Americans can relegate the enforcement of the Rule of Law to the legal profession alone. The rest of us have to understand it and recognize when it is not being applied.