confirmation hearings. now that the president has signed a repeal of don t ask, don t tell, one would expect that the schools that had shunned rotc would now open their campuses to the u.s. military, right? well, not so fast. well, while harvard is apparently pursuing discussions about full recognition of rotc there is continuing resistance elsewhere including columbia university. student and faculty members there have convened a task force on military engagement to consider whether to formally participate in rotc. i have an idea, why don t we convene our own task force to decide whether columbia university should be protected by the u.s. military. let s face it, now there is no longer any excuse to keep rotc off campus, unless that is you really don t like the u.s. military or what stands for. the solution here is simple. it s for president obama who attended both columbia and harvard to call upon all
during the confirmation. during the confirmation. during the confirmation if i m from the south or the midwest, i would hone in, and i would at least keep focusing on why did you keep the rotc off of campus? why are you doing what leftists and elitists have been doing on ivy league campuses for decades, sheltering our most privileged youth from serving in the military? willie, it s always interesting, doris kerns goodwin always tells the story of going to dinner parties up in boston. the first time she told everybody in her group in boston that her son was fighting going to war and witing war after 9/11, she said that they gasped. how did that happen? how did it happen? boy. and it s amazing. doris is alone as far as in the elites that we know around here whose child served in iraq or afghanistan. it is interesting. there is a little bit of nuance
her as a left-wing loon? i don t know about left-wing loon, but i will say this. i would have voted for her for solicitor general for this reason. a person in the united states has got a right to have people with agree with them and that believe with him at his right hand. but when we re talking about someone who s going to sit on the supreme court and make law, if you will, for 30 years and if you see what you did in harvard, the hostility toward the military, ordering them off campus basically and saying that their it was morally outrageous, don t ask, don t tell their policy, which was a clinton policy, this is a woman of hard views, and i think those views are going to be explored and rightly so, joe. and charles, it s interesting i don t know if i would agree with that. not only on the right but also on the left, a lot of people on the left going, she is insufficiently progressive. come on, this is a joke. this woman will not be voting with scalia more than 1% of the
tools. you can understand how some of us would say, what? you re going to use gays in the military as a reason to keep the united states military off of it harvard campus to recruit people to go fight in our wars? can you understand how some people, by kagan s using her position, to keep the rotc off harvard s campus? i understand how some people would be offended by that. i understand how mothers and people i know very well would say thank god someone s taking a stand on this issue, and it has nothing to do with hating the military. nothing to do with it. okay. so you understand how reasonable people can differ on this issue. absolutely. on both sides of it. on both sides. good, we agree. no, not necessarily. i m going to move on. i kind of agree with pat here. i do not see the political again, i repeat this because i think it s shameful what happens in these confirmation processes, pat, especially with what
like the government and the supreme court especially have been elites from harvard that don t share our values. here are two issues, charles, and i ll take it to you. here are two issues where we ve got gays in the military. i ll be honest with you, and i ll get killed by conservatives for this. somebody wants to fight and die for america, sign up and i ll salute you in uniform. but that does matter, though, to a lot of social conservatives in the south and the midwest. but then secondly, keeping the rotc off campus, what smacks of 60s elitism and liberalism more than that? well, okay. first, the conservatives are going to kill you. the gallup recent poll, 53% of even republicans say they agree with gays serving openly in the military. the issue is not going to be a good issue for anybody, you know. let s talk about banning the rotc from campus. you know, it s a principle to push the point, right?