Announcer: Welcome back to The David Pakman Show.
David: All right, Louis, we're back on the show. www.DavidPakman.com is the website.
Hi to everybody watching on Ustream.tv. We have a live video stream and chatroom that
goes on every Monday and Thursday 3:00 p.m. I know Louis is a big fan of that, and it's
hard to even get him to pay attention to the show here because there's a whole other show
going on there, is there not?
Louis: It's way more interesting.
David: The... thank you. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal has happened. [Laughter] And Barack
Obama has signed the bill, this was yesterday. Let's take a look at how that happened. And
as we know, it would be unfair for our troops to be prevented from being sent to pointless
wars with no end often started under false pretenses just because of sexual orientation.
That should certainly not save them from that. So it is the correct thing, it is the fair
thing, for Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be repealed.
Now, I wonder if we will be seeing lawsuits, Louis, from anti-gay groups to try to get
the law put back into place, and that's actually the poll on www.DavidPakman.com right now,
will anti-gay groups start lawsuits to bring back Don't Ask, Don't Tell? I don't know,
actually. My initial thought was yes, but because of the way that it was repealed, I
actually don't know whether they will bother or not.
Louis: Hard to say.
David: What we do know, by the way, is that immediately after the signing of the Don't
Ask, Don't Tell repeal, the Obama administration asked for, they filed an emergency request
with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to actually stop the military from allowing openly
gay troops from serving so far. And people don't-- may not understand this, but essentially
what is going on is that while the law has been repealed, Barack Obama wants to make
sure that everything is ready for gay and lesbian troops to be able to say that they
may be gay or lesbian, and he wants to have the full blessing of those in charge of the
military. So while this has been signed, concurrent to that, there has been this filing to say
that we can't do this quite yet. But in theory, Barack Obama has said it will happen soon.
Now, one question I have is does the passing-- does the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell make
the marriage argument, the gay marriage argument, even more obvious, right? I mean, you can
fight and die openly, but you can't get married? Hmm. Barack Obama was actually asked about
that by Jake Tapper, and here's how he answered it, some people saying well, he didn't really
give us a good answer. Here's what he said.
Barack Obama: At this point, what I've said is is that my baseline is a strong civil union
that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have, and
I think-- and I think that's the right thing to do. But I recognize that from their perspective
it is not enough, and...
David: All right. So we'll see what happens. You know, many people still say that privately
Barack Obama does not support gay marriage, but that politically he does. You know, personally,
I don't know, but it'll be interesting to watch now how the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal
might affect gay marriage rulings, if at all. I don't know if it will.
Louis: Maybe. We'll see.
David: Barney Frank, just after this was signed, owns a CNS reporter who tries to do a Fox
News ambush and it completely backfires. This is really funny. His name's Nicholas Ballasy,
Ballasy, I'm not sure exactly how it's pronounced, and he tries to do... you know what these
ambushes are like. You know, we've seen Fox News do them a bunch of times, except if you're
going to do the ambush, you should probably be a little bit more prepared, you know? And
this guy goes up to Barney Frank and here's what happens. It's very good.
Nicholas Ballasy: ... for you about the working group that Secretary Gates put into effect,
he appointed, of the Defense Department working group. They recommended that a straight military
personnel will have to shower with homosexual, openly...
Barney Frank: [Gasps] A shower with a homosexual? What do you think happens in gyms all over
America? What do you think happens in the House of Representatives? Of course people
shower with homosexuals. What a silly issue. What do you think goes wrong when people shower
with homosexuals? Do you think it's-- the spray makes it catching? I mean, people shower
with homosexuals in college dormitories, in gyms where people play sports, in gyms elsewhere.
It is a complete non-issue.
Ballasy: So that recommendation you think is a non-issue?
Frank: I... to accept the principle that homosexuals can't shower with other people is a degree
of discrimination that goes far beyond this. I mean, we don't get ourselves dry-cleaned.
We tend to take showers when we go to the gym, when we play sports. The notion that
there's somehow anything new in the first place about showering with homosexuals, remember,
under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, by the way, the policy was that you would be showering with
homosexuals, you just weren't supposed to know which was which, so there was no change
in that.
David: This is... the guy literally looks like a deer caught in headlights. Could you
think of a stupider thing to even ask about?
Louis: No, and I can't think of a worse person to ambush.
David: Yeah, exactly. I mean, is Barney Frank really the guy you want to talk to about this?
Louis: Right.
David: And it's a-- the thing is, not only is it a non-issue because it's stupid, it's
a non-issue because there was never any problem with a homosexual in the military showering
with a heterosexual man. You just couldn't talk about your sexual orientation.
Louis: Right, the showering was going on.
David: The showering was going on regardless. It's just unbelievable. And this guy literally...
if you're going to do the ambush, be more prepared. Sometimes Fox News isn't even prepared;
this is another level altogether. I mean, I get...
Louis: Pretty funny, though. I like it.
David: And the idea that it would even be an issue, I mean, at the gym I go to, there's
plenty of gay guys, there's plenty of straight guys, there's people you can't tell even what
gender they are, I mean, it's a mix. It's a mix. And I can't say the gay guys in the
locker room don't bother me, but what I can say is it doesn't bother me any differently--
anybody in the locker room looking at me bothers me, regardless of sexual orientation. I don't
like anybody looking.
You should see me at that gym, Louis. I mean, I go in there, I'm usually fully covered.
I wear like a... usually I wear like a beekeeper's outfit when I go to the gym just to make sure.
I really don't like people looking at me. Weather permitting, I'll wear like a Hazmat
suit or something like that.
Louis: Right. It's only when you work out at home that you wear the Speedo, right?
David: That's right. That's exactly right. So I'm like a ninja in that locker room. I
mean, you should see me. I slip in there... you would think-- you wouldn't even notice
me. I slip right in, quickly change into my workout, you know, clothes, and get out of
there. It's like I was never even there. That's my move.
Louis: Gotta do what you gotta do.
David: Yeah, I don't know. I just... to be honest, the sexual orientation of the people
giving me weird looks does not even cross my mind. I don't want anybody looking at what
it is I have going on in that locker room. 30 seconds I've got it down to. In and out,
Louis.
Louis: That's pretty impressive.
David: It really is. It really is. And on a serious note, I mean, we have wars, we've
got drugs in our streets, there's poverty everywhere, young people are dying from violence,
ineffective schools, immigration issues, and who showers together is an issue? Really at
the top of the list of social issues. So log on to www.DavidPakman.com, will anti-gay groups
start lawsuits to bring back Don't Ask, Don't Tell?
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham. For transcription, translation, captions, and
subtitles, contact Alex at directtranslation@gmail.com.