And what do you know, they buried the news with a Friday afternoon announcement:

The ban on gays in the military has stood for nearly a century.

In 60 days, after decades of discharges, lawsuits and lobbying, that will change.

On Friday, President Barack Obama fulfilled a 2008 campaign pledge, formally ending the ban. After meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, the president certified to Congress that repealing the ban would not jeopardize the military’s ability to fight.

“As commander in chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness,” Obama said in a statement. “Service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country.”

I still think that this happened because he was forced to (Google “don’t ask don’t give”) and they went with a low profile release in an attempt to bury it.

The basic rule here is that they will do the right thing, if they are absolutely forced to do do, and then they will try to minimize their involvement.