Along the same lines as the recent "issue" of contraception, Obama follows it up with Eric Holder saying DoJ intends not to defend a provision in the Veterans' Bennies law that denies benefits to same-sex spouses.
It's not clear to me that they're saying the VA will stop denying those bennies, it's just that if you're denied and you challenge, then DoJ isn't gonna put up a fight. Not quite as good as I think it oughta be, but they have to make it look like they're at least trying to follow the law. There're still problems with the whole Torture and Illegal Imprisonment things out there, but hey - I'll take smallish improvements where I can get 'em.
Anyway, add this one to Contraception (and let's not forget DOMA), and we've got something that's starting to look like a pattern.
Obama is aware that the attitudes have shifted. People who went along with the Right Radicals on the Culture War crap, thinking they'd get something good in return, are seeing now that there wasn't any real payoff at all - it was a gyp. The Culture War is the agenda, and what you get for your trouble is fucked with your pants on.
So Obama rolls merrily along. Once in a while he tosses a big hunk of juicy red meat out the window, and we all get to watch as a smaller and smaller pack of increasingly vicious feral dogs tear into each other trying to get at it.
One other little thing occurs to me. I think this is looking like Obama is finding his footing, and learning how to use his expertise in Constitutional Law to drive the politics necessary to move his policy agenda forward. Remember the big stupid show the House Repubs made of reading the Constitution, and requiring that every proposed bill include Constitutional compliance / justification? I think Obama has taken that in hand like a blackjack and is in the process of wailin' the shit out of 'em with it. I dunno of course, but it's more fun to watch now than it was just 6 or 8 months ago.
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