The flap over the statement by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, that he considers homosexual acts immoral has the Democrats running for president racing to condemn both him and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. That policy, implemented by the Clinton administration, bans openly gay or lesbian soldiers from the military. Senator Clinton is quoted in the Daily News as telling ABC that she wants to make sure gays and lesbians can serve in the military, and Senator Obama was quoted by the News as saying “it is time to revisit” the law.

Well, what’s stopping them? The Democrats control the Congress, and Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama or Senators Dodd or Biden, or any of the other Democratic presidential candidates sitting in Congress could easily introduce a bill getting rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and replacing it with any policy they want. What are New Yorkers to make of the fact that they have not done so?

Rep. Martin Meehan, a Democrat of Massachusetts, at least has the courage to act on his convictions. He introduced a bill late last month to “enhance the readiness of the Armed Forces by replacing the current policy concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces, referred to as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ with a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Yet so far as we can tell from a search of the congressional bill database, there is no companion bill in the Senate. Mr. Meehan’s bill has so far attracted only 114 co-sponsors. That is less than half the Democrats in the House of Representatives. The bill is languishing in the House Armed Services Committee. Speaker Pelosi has not brought it to a vote.

The News’ headline over the article on General Pace was “General Bigot,” to which we can only say that if everyone who holds that homosexual acts are immoral were a bigot, it would mean that most adherents of traditional religions, from Roman Catholicism to Orthodox Judaism, would be bigots. Is that what Senators Clinton, Obama & Company believe?

The broader point that is put into sharp relief by this tumult is the same as that which arises with those Democrats who decry President Bush’s “tax cuts for the rich.” Now that the Democrats actually control Congress, they are, at some point, going to have to act on some of these issues — changing the policy so as to allow gays in the military, raising taxes on the rich — or risk being seen as all talk.