Dec 07, 2007  |  By: KEVIN NAFF  | COMMENTS     

THE DRUDGE-FANNED faux controversy last week regarding gay retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr’s appearance at the CNN-YouTube debate proves yet again just how effective the right-wing noise machine is at diverting attention and devouring its opponents.

Kerr asked a simple question regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” during the debate. After the GOP presidential candidates failed to answer the question, moderator Anderson Cooper introduced Kerr, who was sitting in the studio audience.

Predictably, the largely Republican audience booed Kerr as he attempted to ask a follow-up question, which turned into a bit of a disjointed soliloquy. But after more than 40 years serving his country in the armed forces, Kerr had earned a bit of patience and indulgence from the candidates and the crowd.

It emerged later that night that Kerr had signed onto a list of gay supporters of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. And then Drudge, Fox News, et-al-went into action, declaring Kerr’s inclusion a set-up. CNN and Cooper immediately capitulated, pulling Kerr’s question from a rebroadcast of the show and apologizing to viewers.

There was no justification for yanking Kerr from the rebroadcast and no need for an apology. The other questioners that night weren’t required to disclose their party affiliation or whether they had endorsed a specific candidate. For CNN and anyone else to act surprised that a rival campaign might have planted a question among the 5,000 YouTube videos is naïve at best. I assumed that the bulk of the submissions came from those with interests in the campaigns or partisan viewers hoping to help their guy on national TV.

But Kerr’s question was legitimate and has been answered by all the Democrats running for president, who have pledged to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” For the Republicans to turn it around and play victim is transparently absurd. This stunt is one more nail in the coffin, I hope, of the flawed and demeaning YouTube debate format.

At the same time the GOP candidates were defending the discriminatory policy by vaguely claiming it is “working,” the Democratic presidential candidates were taking turns denouncing it yet again in a series of posts to HRC’s web site. Of course, Cooper never pressed the Republicans for an explanation of just how the gay ban is “working.” Destroying the careers of 12,000 service members, wasting the money the military has spent training them and depriving the armed forces of much-needed expertise in wartime doesn’t sound like a working policy. It sounds overtly discriminatory, wasteful and suicidal.

The other factor Republicans frequently invoke to defend “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is that retired Gen. Colin Powell supports it. Indeed, Powell deserves much of the blame for opposing President Bill Clinton’s effort to kill the ban after taking office in 1993. But that was a long time ago.

Powell has not responded to several recent Blade requests for comment on the issue and I doubt that he harbors the same views on the ban that he did in 1993. Many of Powell’s former colleagues in the military leadership have changed their views and publicly denounced “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” including Gen. John Shalikashvili. It’s time for Powell to address the question and publicly renounce his past support for the bigoted policy that has ruined so many promising careers.

Powell should not allow the Republican presidential candidates to hide behind him on this issue. If they support “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” then they should be compelled to explain why.