After a year of prevaricating, postponing, and pretermitting, the mythical Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal hearings have arrived – February 9th, at noon, according to an press release just issued by the office of Senator Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. So far, though, the witness list only features Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Bob Gates, the Secretary of Defense, and not any service members or experts who might testify about the real impact on the policy, or Senator Kirsten Gilibrand, who would be able to score rhetorical points in favor of a repeal. This is only going to be a preliminary event, where we will probably hear Adm. Mullen repeat his commitment to following the lead of Congress and his Commander-in-Chief, or both may defer to Congress, since DADT is actually a piece of federal legislation, not a military regulation. One tooth is (almost) pulled, only 31 more to go….