Who Woulda Thunk It?

An 80-year-old Republican senator from Virginia -- who served in Korea as a Marine and later as secretary of the Navy -- rebukes the top military officer in the country and states outright that he doesn't consider homosexuality as immoral.

But when two so-called "liberal" presidential candidates on the other side of the Senate aisle are given the same opportunity, neither one could find the intestinal fortitude to do what the ol' white Southerner did.

If gays and lesbians were looking for a champion to dispute Gen. Peter Pace's claim that homosexuality is immoral, they might have expected Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama to leap forward.

Not quite. While both Clinton and Obama are courting gays and lesbians, and would allow them to serve openly in the military, the Democratic front-runners have been curiously reticent about challenging the statements of the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff. ...

On Wednesday, Newsday repeatedly asked Obama if same-sex relationships were immoral.

"I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has restricted his public comments to military matters," said Obama, leaving Capitol Hill. "That's probably a good tradition to follow." ...

That sequence was remarkably similar to Clinton's responses Tuesday. When an ABC reporter asked her about the issue, she replied, "Well, I am going to leave that to others to conclude."

Later, they both trotted out their "spokespersons" to say that they indeed disagree with Pace, but (Ed: Sarcastic, artist license warning ahead ...) "we just don't want to say it ourselves so it can become part of an opponent's television commercial later."

Later, Senator Clinton did speak for herself, but she made matters worse.

"Well I've heard from a number of my friends and I've certainly clarified with them any misunderstanding that anyone had, because I disagree with General Pace completely. I do not think homosexuality is immoral. But the point I was trying to make is that this policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is not working. I have been against it for many years because I think it does a grave injustice to patriotic Americans who want to serve their country."

Don't Ask, Don't Tell ... now exactly who came up with that policy -- despite campaign promises to the contrary? And who was that guy's "co-president"?