Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has
joined former Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Mike Huckabee
of Arkansas in calling for the reinstatement of “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell,” the law that bans gay and bisexual troops from serving
openly.
In January, Pawlenty was the first
social conservative Republican to say that as president he would
fight for the law's return.
On the radio program of the American
Family Association's (AFA) Bryan Fischer, Pawlenty said he would sign
such a bill.
“I've been a public supporter of
maintaining 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and I would support reinstating
it as well,” Pawlenty said.
Earlier this week, a second Republican
considering a run at the White House backed the idea.
Mike
Huckabee told the AFA's One
News Now that he would support reinstatement.
“I would – because that's really
what the military wants. There's been some talk that the military is
fine with having same-sex orientation people. But if you really
surveyed the combat troops, that is not at all the case.”
The former Baptist minister added that
soldiers, not politicians, should decide the issue.
“I don't think that these are
decisions that politicians should make,” he said. “These are
decisions that soldiers should make. And when the soldiers in the
foxholes make the decisions, they choose something different – and
we should listen to them.”
On Fischer's program Thursday, Haley
Barbour joined the chorus, saying that an “amorous mindset” would
interfere with critical decision making on the battlefield.
“When you're under fire and people
are living and dying of split-second decisions you don't need any
kind of amorous mindset that can affect saving people's lives and
killing bad guys,” Barbour told his host. “You look at the data
and it is the foot soldier that is the person who is out there, boots
on the ground, who was most against this.” (The video is embedded
in the right panel of this page.)