Discharging DADT (Or: The Right’s Really Not a Happy Place)

WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 02: Defense Secretary Robert Gates (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen (R) participate in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 2, 2010 in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony on the proposed Department of Defense budget request for fiscal year 2011, and reviewing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – FEBRUARY 02: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) listens to Defense Secretary Robert Gates speak during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 2, 2010 in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony on the proposed Department of Defense budget request for fiscal year 2011, and reviewing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

It was the cultural milestone that made this hearing so ripe for portraiture.

Admiral Mullen could not have been more plain, open and unqualified in his opposition to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the rights of gays to serve openly in the armed services. (Mullen, in fact, appeared quite pleased and proud about it, seeming to appreciate his own unique role today in advancing American civil rights.)

And, as for McCain, a guy who is so diagnostically true to his oppositional nature, he feels compelled to overthrow his own reactionary or anti-reactionary opinions about every six months or so. If you watch Maddow’s take down, you’ll see that: John was against it, before he was for it (if the brass was for it), before he was against it either way.

And then, that look on Jeff Sessions’s face when the Admiral has to spell it out, yet again, is just priceless.

(photo 1& 2: Mark Wilson/Getty Images: caption: Defense Secretary Robert Gates (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen (R) participate in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 2, 2010 in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony on the proposed Department of Defense budget request for fiscal year 2011, and reviewing the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. image 3: screen grab/MSNBC)