Baby Steps On DADT?

Defense Sec. Bob Gates, yesterday:

[O]ne of the things we’re looking at is is there flexibility in how we apply this law in terms of well, let me give you an example. Do we need to be driven when the information, to take action on somebody if we get that information from somebody who may have vengeance in mind or blackmail or somebody who has been jilted….In other words, if somebody is outed by a third party, we have to does that force us to take an action? And I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t want to pretend to. But that’s the kind of thing we’re looking at to see if there’s at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed.

Ackerman recoils:

But doesn’t this kind of absurdity we may have to discharge a soldier who’s being blackmailed just argue for expediting the process of overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? Gates acknowledged that the law is “very prescriptive.” Doesn’t that just mean it’s time to get out of the straightjacket and let everyone who wants to serve in the military serve?