When the rightwing nuts use his name like a slur in place of the words they can’t use, I know they are expressing their contempt not of him as a person, but of me and all the other gay people as well. So I want to like him.

But he doesn’t make it easy.

One of the good guys in the repeal of DADT has been former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Not because he has been a relentless supporter from the start, he wasn’t. And not because he invariably supported every timeline or due date that our community proposed, he didn’t.

But, rather, because Gates was a former military man and a Republican appointed by Bush whose intentions were impeccable and who could never be dismissed by the blowhards on ranting radio as a ‘leftist elite who came in with an agenda’. And once he was convinced of our case, Gates became an advocate, speaking to the press, pushing for repeal, and eventually shepherding the implementation of the rules change.

But Barney Frank – a man so partisan that he endorsed homophobe Silber over supporter Weld – just couldn’t resist a partisan dig.

I have nothing negative to say about Leon Panetta. But to suggest that DADT was being held up by Gates and that Panetta saved the day is both factually incorrect and downright petty.

I’d really like to like Barney Frank, but it would be easier if he wasn’t such a classless jerk.

Susan Collins is from Maine, not Mass.

(R-ME)

Not all of our republicans are entirely backwards up here despite out teabagger governor…