DALE CARPENTER: THE LEAST HE COULD DO. “In a brief and perfunctory prepared statement, read carefully from a script, President Obama just signed an order directing federal departments to grant some benefits to employees’ same-sex partners. It includes things like sick leave for partners, the use of medical facilities, access to long-term care benefits, and instruction in foreign languages, if such benefits are otherwise available to spouses. . . . Interestingly, Obama’s rhetoric was at odds with his own Justice Department’s brief, filed late last week, defending the constitutionality of DOMA. Obama called DOMA “discriminatory,” though he never said on what grounds he thinks it’s discriminatory. His DOJ last week maintained that DOMA doesn’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or sex, the two most obvious ways in which one might think it discriminatory.”