OVERTURNED? – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  There is a good chance that the Senate, following the House, will this weekend vote to overturn "don't ask, don't tell," and permit gays to serve openly in the military.  Republican opposition is fading, and at least four Republicans, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, will go along with the overturn.

This would be a major victory for Mr. Obama, liberals, and the gay movement.

I must say that I've never given this issue much thought.  It is, of course, outrageous that the overturn might occur without a full, thoughtful Senate debate, but that's the way the liberal crowd does business.  The current Congress wants to slam through as much liberal legislation as possible before yielding to the new, much more conservative Congress that will be sworn in after the first of the year.  Who cares about election results or that "will of the people" stuff? 

There is, however, one clear benefit that I can see in the overturn:  It puts real heat on those "elite" colleges that have refused to bring ROTC back to their campuses, citing the "unfairness" of "don't ask, don't tell."  Two universities, in particular, Harvard and Columbia, have made it clear that the DADT rule was preventing them from having ROTC.  Well, if the rule is overturned, what will these places do?

I hate to sound cynical, but I'll make a semi-educated guess that these "top" colleges will do very little.  It is hard to exaggerate the cynicism of the far left, which has these places in a lock grip.  Oh yes, they'll acknowledge the end of "don't ask, don't tell," but I doubt if the welcome mat will be rolled out for the military.  I suspect the faculties will vote to "study" the issue...endlessly. 

Or, the campus trendies might invent still one more obstacle.  Now, what could that be?  Well, the Army pfc in custody for providing many of the classified documents to WikiLeaks is said to be gay.  His lawyers are already charging that he's being "abused," although they provide no evidence.  I could easily see a campus campaign on behalf of Private Manning, citing "abuse of a gay soldier."  Bring back ROTC with such a crisis underway?  Don't even think about it.

I hope I'm wrong.  I hope that, if the overturn occurs, these universities and colleges will honor their own argument and welcome the military to their campuses.  But I'll believe it only when I see it.

December 18, 2010