Burying Bill - Clinton that is...

[merrily]

17. He did not have to sign it. He did not disavow it, either, until the Obama administration.

Sorry, but it's what you do in office, when you have both power to do right for people and skin in the game, that counts.

BTW, no one knows if a bill actually has a veto proof majority until a veto occurs. An actual veto can change things and has. Two thirds of both houses after a Presidential veto is no sure thing, by any means. Also, there is no guaranty an allegedly veto proof majority would have existed in the first place if the head of the Democratic Party and sitting POTUS had opposed it vigorously from the jump, as he should have.

We heard the same thing about repeal of Glass Steagall--veto proof majority. Poor Bubba, what's a helpless POTUS to do?. Then, it turned out Clinton and Summers were lobbying Congress for those veto proof votes, right along with Greenspan. Greenspan's admitted he was wrong. Bubba and Summers, not so much

Moreover, signing DOMA put a Democratic imprimatur on it that a veto would not have done. America reacts differently to government decisions that seem bipartisan that it does to things that are obviously partisan.

So, please don't excuse his failure to veto so facilely. The veto is in the Constitution for good reason--and Bill chose not to veto for good reason. He didn't want to take the heat and he didn't want to hurt his chances for re-election by taking the correct stand. He can't have it both ways.

Bill also very much deserves to have DADT held against him. Reagan had signed an Executive Order. Bill could have reversed Reagan's order with an executive order of his own. Instead, he triangulated with Dick Morris and Colin Powell and then had Congress pass it, so he would not have to take the political hit for it. That made it harder to improve by Executive Order--or at least so we were told repeatedly after Obama took office.

Gays in the military suffered under DADT.

The whole story doesn't help Bubba one tiny bit.