Looking Into — and at — the DADT Hearings, Day 1
[Photo: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the committee hearing on Dec. 2. (Photo by Ward Morrison.)]
The Senate hearings held today and Friday looking into the Pentagon working group’s report about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal implementation were certain to be a window to the military and a picture of the Senate. After today’s hearing, though, the view and pictures were all the more clear.
My report on the hearings, “Military v. McCain,” begins:
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who in February told the Senate Armed Services Committee that his personal opinion was that ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be repealed, on Thursday, Dec. 2, added to that response, telling the senators, ”I did not know it as a fact; now I do. What was then my personal opinion is now my professional view.”
Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were testifying before the committee on the first day of hearings into the Pentagon working group’s report on DADT repeal implementation. The co-chairs of the working group, Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson and Gen. Carter Ham, testified as well on Thursday.
For more of Ward Morrison’s excellent photos from today, check out this photo gallery, “Senate Hearing on Pentagon DADT Report.”
[Photo: Adm. Mike Mullen, Defense Sec. Robert Gates, Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson and Gen. Carter Ham testify. (Photo by Ward Morrison.)]
Meanwhile, Igor Volsky at Wonk Room pulled together the following clip of some of the back and forth of which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was a part today:
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