Joe Lieberman

If we don't repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' in this 111th Session of Congress, the new Congress, I'm afraid, is not going to repeal it, and then we'll have to depend on the courts to repeal it.

It would be disappointing to the -- to the point of infuriating if with that kind of support in the Senate, having passed the House today, that the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' is not accomplished before Christmas.

We've got not 60 but now 61 members of the U.S. Senate publicly committed to the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'.

I was very surprised by General Amos's comments. I know he's against the repeal. I respectfully just think he's absolutely wrong. 84 percent of Marines who have served with gay or lesbian -- lesbian Marines say that it has absolutely no…

Yes, I do. And I understand that feeling. Look, if the opponents of repeal of 'don't ask don't tell' are so much against 'don't ask don't tell' that they're willing to stop the whole Defense Authorization bill by filibustering every…

Yes, I do. And I understand that feeling. Look, if -- if the opponents of repeal of don't ask, don't tell are so much against don't ask, don't tell that they're willing to stop the whole defense authorization bill by filibustering every…

I'm -- I'm confident that we will get more than 60 votes.

This is too important, both the defense bill itself to support our military and the repeal of don't ask, don't tell, which people agree in our caucus really is the major civil rights legislation before this 211th Congress.

We have got the time to take up the underlying defense bill, which is very important to our military.

Well, it sure looks like that to me.

I think we should challenge them by staying in and continuing to work on the bill, to really decide whether they -- they're so much against the repeal of 'don't ask don't tell' after the Pentagon study made it clear it will not compromise…

I happen to agree with Senator McCain that matters of sexual orientation and race are fundamentally different.

One of the things that we lost or wasted when the military had to evict 14,000 people from the military because they were gay or lesbian is the money we invested in training them.

The fact is he cannot do it himself. Congress has to take action to give the President essentially the same latitude for executive action that President Truman had during his time.

Thanks again to the witnesses.

I believe it is an important matter of keeping faith with those currently serving in the Armed Forces that the Secretary of Defense-commissioned review be completed before there is any legislation to repeal.

Let me just say that we base a lot of our decisions, probably too many, on samples about political questions and our standing that are a lot smaller than the number that you had responding here.

Success in America, in the military, is based not on who you are but what you do.

I remain convinced that it is critically important to get a better understanding of where our soldiers and families are on the issue.

My concern is legislative changes at this point leading sailors to question whether their input matters.

I think DADT is a stain on the honor of the U.S. military that we have the capacity to remove in this session of Congress, and I hope that we will.

I appreciate, finally, your comment about the integrity of the military.

It's just wrong and un-American to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.

The U.S. military has a proud tradition of leading and reflecting the best values of America.

It did answer the question, in my opinion, that if the DADT law is repealed that it will not compromise military effectiveness, unit cohesion, or morale.