It is with great joy that I note the Senate passage and today’s signing by President Obama of a bill that should lead to the eventual repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” The policy was pure discrimination, and has no place in a fair and equal society. But the events of the last few days would not have happened without the past two years of tireless advocacy from the grassroots. It was some of best, unrelenting political activism in recent times, for which many deserve credit.

That said, change shouldn’t be this hard.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will face questioning on the Pentagon’s review of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today.

As I noted in this post, the front page NYT story putting Petraeus in charge of the paramilitary groups I will call “JUnc-WTF,” which are deployed in allied countries, reminded me of Eric Massa’s allegations that Dick Cheney and Petraeus were plotting a coup (though, as Massa describes it, it sounds more like an “election challenge”).

This essentially calls the Administration’s bluff.

We finally have clarity from the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs on the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy: they oppose it.