Lady Gaga takes on John McCain over ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
-
Can Lady Gaga succeed where gay rights activists in Washington so far have failed?
Everybody's favorite hangar-steak-wearing pop queen is pushing her more than 6.3 million Twitter followers to lobby the Senate ahead of a planned vote this Tuesday on repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bans gay members of the military from serving openly.
On Tuesday, Gaga, via Twitter, encouraged her "lil monsters" — as she refers to her legion of fans — to call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule the vote. Reid promptly did and subsequently announced this in a Twitter message to Gaga herself. "Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so," Reid wrote.
But Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, have threatened to filibuster DADT, which is included in a larger Defense Department budget bill. So on Thursday, Gaga, who is the most widely followed person on Twitter, directed her ire at McCain. "SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN is attempting to stop the DON'T ASK DON'T TELL repeal vote this Tuesday, with a filibuster," Gaga tweeted.
After explaining what a filibuster is, the pop star then urged her followers to lobby the Senate in order to keep McCain from blocking the vote. "All hands on deck Lil Monsters," she wrote. "We need 60 senators. Call your senator now."
Early Friday morning, Gaga posted a message on YouTube urging the repeal of DADT. In it, she calls out McCain, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who opposes the repeal. You can watch her appeal here:
hXXp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG5VK2lquEc&feature=player_embedded
So far, there has been no response from McCain, who has never been shy about exchanging messages with celebrities via Twitter. Earlier this year, McCain exchanged tweets with Snooki from MTV's "Jersey Shore." McCain, a skin-cancer survivor, assured the orange-hued reality-TV star that had he prevailed in the 2008 presidential ballot, he would have never imposed a tax on tanning beds.
