I wonder if Dan Choi would agree that Obama hasn't betrayed the gay community when with an executive order he could immediately stop the implementation of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

I wonder if most members of the LGBT community, their family and friends would agree that Obama hasn't betrayed the gay community when his Justice Department filed an outrageous brief in which gay marriage is likened to cases of incestuous relations or marrying children

While the action he has taken is useful, it doesn't address giving true equality to all people regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. African-Americans wouldn't have settled for this kind of half-hearted step when they sought equal rights and neither should the gay community

I think Obama is taking this constituency for granted because Republicans are even worse on the issue but he did not win his party's nomination in 2008 a landslide and if he doesn't start keeping his word, other candidates may look far more attractive

Jersey Paul, you say Salon's position is "It's just fine to fire an Inspector General because his politics is to the right of the individual for whom he 'serves at the pleasure of'.

It's not fine to fire a columnist because his politics is to the left of the individual for whom 'he serves at the pleasure of'."

I am no fan of Gerald Walpin but think the way his firing for "being confused, disorderly and unduly disruptive" was handled looks terrible given the timing of the termination and the investigation of St. Hope Academy. Joe Conason's labeling the Walpin firing as "a phony scandal" and reminding that he served at the pleasure of the president sounds way too much like what the GOP said regarding the firing of the nine U.S. attornies by the Bush administration.

The Washington Post's action in getting rid of Dan Froomkin removes one great source to whom those who want an honest appraisal of the administration not filtered through Faux News or Rush Limbaugh can turn.

When the right continually complains about the leftist bias of the mainstream media, it's a bad joke because it is increasingly more difficult to find any liberal sources such as Froomkin who will call out politicians no matter what their party.

It reminds me of the disappearance of WaPo columnist Dana Milbank from Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" immediately after Milbank had the hubris to write a column calling the Obama campaign presumptuous.

Nobody is above criticism, including President Barack Obama.

Roman5, you can no more presume to speak for "the people of Iran" than I can claim to be the spokesperson for the entire population of the United States.

It is naive to assume that all Iranians share one point of view any more than all Americans do. And your diatribes blaming Israel for everything that's wrong in the world are simplistic responses to complex issues

When it is suggested that gays force Obama to act on his promises, citing the example of Roosevelt saying "Make me do it," it reminds me think of the claims that FDR cared deeply about the plight of the Jewish people in Europe and wanted to do something to help them.

But then the war came along and that had to take precedence over saving the Jews from Hitler. I don't think it would have made 6 million slaughtered men, women and children feel any better had they gone to their deaths thinking FDR's heart really was in the right place, he just had other matters to attend to before he got to their plight.

There will always be something "more important" for the American president to deal with than DOMA or Don't Ask Don't Tell unless you happen to be gay or care about people who are. Even then there are plenty of people in the LGBT community willing to give Obama a pass because there's that pesky economy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So they'll take the crumbs he's dropping from the table assuming later he'll offer them the full plate they were promised.

I see very little difference between the behavior of Republicans and Democrats.

The two scandals that disturb me the most are Mark Sanford and John Edwards, both of whom coincidentally condemned Bill Clinton for his indiscretions.

Their wives are beautiful, educated women who gave up their careers to stand by their men and were repaid by their husbands having not just physical affairs like Spitzer and Vitter but emotional infidelity.

If we could go back to the time before Gary Hart, when the press did not cover the private lives of politicians, the nation might be in far better shape. Some of the greatest presidents in our history were philanderers while some of the worst never cheated on their wives.

When it comes to trying to legislate the morality of others, I'll believe the Democrats practice what they preach when they show the courage to get rid of DOMA and Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

President Obama, running on a platform of change, won more votes than any candidate in U.S. history. In addition, there are now 60 Democratic senators, a filibusterproof majority. In the last election Democrats expanded their control of the House of Representatives and also increased the number of governorships holds to 29.

Why do we keep worrying about bipartisanship when even most Republicans have an unfavorable view of their own party?

What Obama needs is far more pressure from the left, and that includes people willing to criticize him, not just harangue their senators and representatives.

When he starts making good on his promises, such as getting rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (I'll let him slide on the vow to get a shelter dog), then I'll believe it wasn't just a lot of words