The Pentagon at
first blocked Rep. Tammy Baldwin's domestic partner from
traveling on a military plane with a congressional
delegation on a trip to Europe, but gave in after
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intervened.
The Pentagon said
it was merely following House rules, which do not
define domestic partners as spouses. Pelosi's office
countered that the Pentagon has its own rules about
who can go on its planes.
Both sides agree
that Defense Secretary Robert Gates reversed the
decision to keep Azar off the plane after being contacted by
Pelosi (D-Calif).
''It's a matter
of fairness that spouses should be allowed to go, and she
is Ms. Baldwin's spouse,'' said Pelosi spokesman Brendan
Daly. He said that Baldwin had raised the exclusion
with a colleague, who mentioned it to Pelosi. The
lawmakers visited France, the Czech Republic, and Poland
last month.
Baldwin, a
Wisconsin Democrat and openly gay House member, declined to
talk about the incident, which was first reported by Ben
Smith at the political blog Politico.com. Azar, a
Madison energy law attorney who serves on the
Wisconsin Public Service Commission, did not return a
call seeking comment Tuesday.
The Pentagon
still has in place its ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy,
which bars gays from serving openly in the military. But
that had nothing to do with this case, said Pentagon
press secretary Geoff Morrell.
''This is
strictly about following our statutory guidelines and the
House rules,'' he said.
Morrell said that
Pelosi asked Gates to honor her decision to waive House
rules to allow Azar to travel, and that Gates asked her to
put that request in writing.
''She did so, and
he -- in this one case only -- agreed to it,'' Morrell
said. ''This is not a precedent by any means. This does not
open the doors for life partners to travel on
congressional delegations.'' But Gates has agreed to
review future requests on a case-by-case basis,
Morrell said.
Daly said that
both the Pentagon and Pelosi had to issue waivers.
In her letter to
Gates last month, Pelosi wrote that she was using ''the
waiver authority inherent in the speaker's travel policies
to authorize the travel of Ms. Lauren Azar to
accompany Representative Tammy Baldwin on a
congressional delegation scheduled for the March
congressional work period. I request that you in turn
use your waiver authority to facilitate Ms. Azar's
participation in the delegation.''
The six-person
trip was led by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who chairs the
Energy and Commerce Committee's energy and air quality
subcommittee. (Frederic Frommer, AP)
