Credit where Credit is Due: BHO Does it right on "Don't ask don't tell"

Major policy choices should not be left to the courts.  BHO understands this and has made a courageous decision that has enraged his base.  I applaud him for it.  It was a very principled, even conservative choice.  Charles Krauthammer has the story:

Well I think the process is extremely important. And interestingly, [Marine Corps Commandant] Conway, who wants to retain the policy, and the president, who opposes it, agree on the process. As you said, the federal judge ruled that the policy is unconstitutional, has to be overturned and should no longer be enforced.
And the federal government under Obama, I think in a principled way, went and tries to get a stay of that ruling and essentially to overturn it on the theory, and I think it’s a correct one, that you don’t make major changes in the mores of a country through the judges and not through the legislatures.
The real example of that that we learned to our chagrin was abortion, where the courts acted unilaterally, preempting a process. Even liberal Justice Ginsburg has said that by short-circuiting the normal legislative process, which would have — and was — amending the abortion laws in many, many states, by short-circuiting it, what the court did [in Roe v. Wade] is to prolong civil strife and to prevent a stable settlement of the issue.
You don’t want something like that to happen again with issues like gay marriage or with “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” It should be done in the Congress. Look, there’s a change, there’s a generational shift here. In time, it will be abolished, it ought to be done the right way so it becomes a stable settlement and not a source of friction [and] protest.

COMMENT