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- Newsgroups: soc.motss
- Path: sparky!uunet!gumby!yale!mintaka.lcs.mit.edu!spdcc!joe
- From: joe@spdcc.com (Joseph Francis)
- Subject: Re: Clue phone for William J. Clinton
- Message-ID: <1993Jan27.183300.2643@spdcc.com>
- Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
- References: <1993Jan26.000442.14043@bsu-ucs> <C1Gxw0.8Ct@acsu.buffalo.edu> <mattm-260193094220@mcmelmon.apple.com>
- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:33:00 GMT
- Lines: 55
-
- In article <mattm-260193094220@mcmelmon.apple.com> mattm@apple.com (Matthew Melmon) writes:
- >In article <C1Gxw0.8Ct@acsu.buffalo.edu>, viejones@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu
- >(Michael A. Jones) wrote:
- >
- >> Do you have lines for all 535 members of Congress too? Give Bill
- >> a break and call your Congresspeople!
- >
- >This is excellent advice. Clinton is not the problem. As has
- >been reported at least once in widely-read newspapers - if
- >Congress decides it doesn't like the Executive Order, Congress
- >may overturn it. And Congress looks damn willing to do so.
- >So the Political Queens should quit bitching at the President
- >(gasp - defending a Democrat... ohh, ick, yuck, pitoie) - and
- >turn instead towards that bloated, corrupt, incompetent body
- >that, God save us, actually *creates* the Law.
-
- I've been feeling reticent about jumping into the debate, but I'll add
- to.
-
- I don't believe the debate is about homosexuality; it is about power.
- House of Clinton is the new family on the block, and it is now being
- tested on the federal level to find out what it is made of. Remember -
- his predecessors, House of Reagan, and House of Bush were known
- quantities. Clinton's 180-degree turn-around on federal abortion
- statutes was a start. I think the gay issue is to test his political
- savvy, to deflect a little scrutiny from the economy until it is juicy
- enough to look at "hey, lookin' good!", and to see whether he or
- Congress is the more powerful part of the Democratic party. Think of
- the processes elaborated upon in a film like "Advise and Consent".
- There is a great difference between politics and reality. The
- government, as an entity, is finding out how far House of Clinton will
- go, and how much charisma, how much will it has.
-
- I don't think a bunch of generals seriously worry that much about
- homosexuals in the military, and I certainly doubt if Congress does,
- at this point. In fact, if push comes to shove, and a budget-cut
- military has to make hard decisions, the last thing they will do is
- anti-gay investigations, and a Presidential fiat gives them a
- save-face way out.
-
- Lastly, in between the time there is rescinding of the presidential
- order and any congressional action, I expect wise senior military
- officials to come out. Then the shit really hits the fan, and the
- whole thing just sort of disappears off into some committee somewhere
- never to see the light of day. They can't safely come out now _to
- their peers_; that's why no one can have their input at high levels.
- Once out, both the military and Congress will be very hesitant about
- losing such a large and important investment.
-
- Again, though, it is about politics, not homosexuality, and I doubt
- even the politics of homosexuality. If it wasn't gays, it would be
- something just as 'explosive'.
-
- --
- US Jojo; damp, slighly soiled, but tasty nonetheless.
-