Pelosi key to 'Don't ask' deal

: Some gay rights activists found the Obama administration's slower approach to repeal untenable.AP

In a May 17 conference call, Pelosi told a phalanx of gay rights groups that she was committed to ending the don’t ask, don’t tell policy by the end of the year, according to participants. At a fundraiser for Equality California last Friday, she proclaimed she felt “quite certain” that the policy would “be a memory come Christmas.”

On Monday, Pelosi’s aides and other congressional staff huddled with aides from the White House and the Pentagon to hammer out acceptable legislative language and the details of a letter exchange between proponents of repeal and the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget — the keeper of administration legislative policies.

At the same time, according to a Democratic leadership aide, gay rights activists were meeting with officials at the White House.

The letters, released by the White House on Monday night, make clear that the administration’s original plan — to wait for the results of a Pentagon review before pushing for a legislative repeal of the policy — had fallen by the wayside. That approach would have spared conservative lawmakers a tough vote on reversing the policy — which some argue would help keep the Democratic majority. But it frustrated gay rights activists who have been upset with Democratic leaders for not addressing their legislative agenda as quickly as they desired.

“They got the message, I think, actually really from Pelosi that [Congress was] going to try to do this with or without the White House. ... They could be part of it or not be part of it,” said Richard Socarides, liaison to the gay community under President Bill Clinton. “She figured if Congress tried to get something done and failed, the White House would be blamed. If it tried to get something done and succeeded, and they stood on the sidelines, they’d look like jerks, and it would sort of make the president look bad. It was her leadership and her willingness to be out in front on this at the end that forced their hand.” Politico.com