Just saw Dana Milbank’s column about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell hearings this week — in which the homophobes who testified apparently made such hilarious fools of themselves that pretty much everyone in the room was embarrassed and appalled. And as Milbank puts it,
Though there’s no expectation that Congress will repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.
You should go read the whole thing for all the comic highlights — but it was this paragraph in particular I can’t stop giggling about (boldface emphasis mine):
Donnelly was followed by Jones, a tough-talking businessman who suggested that the military’s tradition of “selfless service” would be undermined by gay men and lesbians. “In the military environment, team cohesion, morale and esprit de corps is a matter of life and death,” he said. His written statement spelled it “esprit decor” …
Ah yes, esprit decor: that vitally important solidarity among interior decorators in the military. Because without esprit decor, how will the throw pillows get arranged properly in the barracks?
But if he thinks having gays serving openly in the military is going to undermine esprit decor — rather than, say, taking it to dazzling new heights — the poor man is even more confused than he seems.
Perhaps the new policy should be “don’t ask, don’t SPELL.”