Elaine Donnelly Pleads “Not Entirely Ignorant”
Yes, friends, it's time to check in with our favorite hair & nail salon buddy, Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness. Elaine has been a busy girl, what with trying to make sense of Sunday's 60 Minutes story and trying to find a presidential candidate far enough out of step with reality that she can throw her support behind them.
First, Elaine was thoroughly confused by the premise behind Sunday's 60 Minutes report, from Lesley Stahl, about the increasing number of gays serving openly and the public outrage at the continued dismissal of gay personnel. Our girl in Michigan just could not wrap her mind around the idea that, while some commanders are appreciating the service of their gay troops, the continued dismissal of 2 service members each day is still unacceptable.
Time to wake up, Elaine: In today's military, when recruitment and retention is struggling, at best, to keep up with the needs of the forces, losing even one qualified service member like Sergeant Darren Manzella is outrageous; losing more than 600 in a year is beyond counter-productive to our national security.
But Ms. Donnelly, bless her heart, just doesn't get it. Instead, she attacks CBS News, calling Sunday's story "sensational" and "a conspiracy theory that reflected negatively on the military as a whole."
The military, Elaine thinks, would look far better if they'd just go ahead and fire all the women and gays. I imagine she'd like the former at home, barefoot and pregnant, and the latter spending their time choosing her hair color.
But I digress. Elaine has other problems, too. She's having trouble finding a presidential contender far enough to the right to get behind.
Writing on a right-wing blog today, Elaine bemoans the fact that so many of the presidential contenders won't commit to returning to a policy of "asking" about sexual orientation in the armed forces.
Mike Huckabee, she notes, said earlier this year that (gasp!) "I’m not sure that being homosexual should automatically disqualify a person from the military. If a person can do his or her job, you know that’s not for me the biggest issue." Scratch him off her Christmas card list.
When he briefly challenged Hillary Clinton for the Senate in 1999, Giuliani "agreed with her support for professed homosexuals in the military," and Romney actually "secured the endorsement of the pro-gay Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans by signing a letter supporting 'gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military.'" And McCain, she says, had the audacity to call the law "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Ron Paul would only tell CMR that the current law is "adequate for the time-being."
Only Fred Thompson (who, Elaine writes, "endorses the proper purpose of the military") and that good ol' stand-by, Duncan Hunter, seem to have a shot at winning Elaine's heart. Duncan, she gushes like a school girl, "has shown consistent leadership on military social issues. In 1993 he supported 'the question' about homosexuality that used to be on induction forms."
Elaine loves that "question" almost as much as she must love Chanel No. 5.
But not everybody has as much love for Elaine as I.
"None of the Democratic candidates responded to CMR Presidential Survey questions," she says, "but we are not entirely ignorant of their positions." That's because each of the Democratic candidates, of course, support open service. And that sends poor Elaine's well-coiffed head spinning 'round and 'round.
It all makes me want to paraphrase those credit card commercials we hear so often this time of year:
Sacrificing Readiness in the Name of Ignorant Prejudice: $363.8 million
Watching the Prejudiced Try to Plead (Not Entirely) Ignorant: Priceless.
- Steve RallsLabels: Darren Manzella, elaine donnelly, in the news, SLDN on 60 Minutes
-----12-18-07
Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.