Word: aspine
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...President had added to the policy in order to claim an "honorable compromise." As irritated as Nunn might be at Clinton's admittedly tortured distinctions between gay "orientation" (to be tolerated) and gay "conduct" (grounds for dismissal), the betting was that he would merely badger Defense Secretary Les Aspin and Gorelick into effectively admitting that it and other pesky wordings were indeed fairly meaningless, and eventually give the package his blessing...
...search for a compromise was ill-fated from the start. The Joint Chiefs had always been dead set against change. And they remained so throughout days of intense negotiations in windowless rooms in the Pentagon. Indeed, they treated the entire debate like a national emergency. Amid discussions with Aspin, they met three times on July 2, more than anyone remembers their convening in one day during the entire Vietnam War. One chief referred to homosexuals as "fags," and the Marine Corps Commandant, General Carl Mundy, passed out antigay video tapes at meetings. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powell...
Last Wednesday, Defense Secretary Les Aspin walked into the Oval Office, assumed his customary slouch in a chair across from the President -- and admitted defeat. It was the eve of the President's self-imposed deadline to come up with a compromise on the military ban on gays in the armed forces. However, despite nearly six months of studying and analyzing, arguing and negotiating, Aspin's report could just as well have been made in January. With Vice President Al Gore, David Gergen, George Stephanopoulos and National Security Adviser Tony Lake sitting in, Aspin told Clinton that the policy dubbed...
...After Aspin's nearly two-hour briefing, the President decided to let his deadline come and go. The Administration would later gravitate toward a new formula -- "Don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" -- that would meet the military's requirements while trying to define what one official called a "zone of privacy" for gay servicemen and -women. But the military's chief congressional ally, Armed Services chairman Senator Sam Nunn, was taking no chances. Ending his truce with the White House, Nunn announced that he would introduce legislation to codify a strict interpretation...
...activist constituents, believes it has succeeded in keeping part of a campaign promise while improving the lot of gays already in uniform. The White House also seems to be taking heart from the fact that the so-called compromise means spinach for everyone. But the costs are heavy. Aspin and his aides lie bloodied on the floor of the Pentagon briefing room. Nunn's threat to legislate even harsher restrictions on gays remains real...