Let’s hope the WH staff doesn’t think that a dismissive, almost contemptuous response to the Blade serves our president well.

First, DADT repeal is an ahistorical example in this instance. Jay ought to be reminded (gently, puh-leeze) that 1993′s DADT specifically prevented future presidents from issuing an EO to repeal it. President Obama could not have repealed DADT by EO had he wanted to.

Also, is Carney seriously suggesting– as was the situation with DADT repeal– we have to wait until a Democratic president has an overwhelming majority in BOTH the Senate and the House– during a lame duck session, no less– to get full ENDA passage?

Nonsense. It doesn’t even make crassly expedient political sense. That could be a 10, 20, or 30-year wait.

And what is it about the tacit complicity of a president in federally subsidized anti-LGBT workplace discrimination that Jay Carney does not understand?

Fact is that real LGBT people are suffering very real employment discrimination– *right now*– at the hands of contractors who are aided and enabled in their discriminatory practices by their federal government benefactors. That is the same said federal government whose top executive official is President Barack Obama.

If the President of the United States won’t stand against discrimination, what evidence does his spokesperson have to think members of Congress– both Dems and GOPs– won’t simply follow the president’ bad example?

Just as damaging for the president is Carney’s not credible, implied political calculus. It very much besmirches an attribute of the president’s well-known and admired ‘brand’ among voters and legislators alike.

This is a president who has rightly touted his ability to compromise, to move the ball forward– and especially, to NOT let a *current good* fall victim to a *future perfect*.

Sure, the Prez has fought his last personal campaign. However, President Obama does have the unique opportunity to lead on this issue– right now. An Obama EO can be framed to set a courageous example of non-discrimination for all employers. And– as part of an overall moral-high-ground effort, that will strengthen, not weaken, the efforts of our allies on the Hill to get full ENDA passage.

A number of good presidents have ‘coasted’ after their re-election. But the great ones of history never stopped trying to improve their record.