we are constrained by doma so he is trying to do what he can do within the confines and extend those benefits and said clearly he wants to be working with congress to support the legislation that would extend benefits and to repeal doma. no one thinks it is fast enough right now. i know the president cares about this and is working on, he wants to reverse do not ask, do not tell. >> what she said. in the stand when people are impatient with the pace of progress. i would say in our defense progress is mostly in the right direction and there is a question of pace. we have only been here 125 days. in those 125 days we have had many irons in the fire. i share lisa's view. of the frustration that people who care about these issues field. i hope that next year when we have this conference, and the question gets asked what it does not elicit the same kind of applause that it elicited. i hope we have more progress. there is applause about the accomplishments we have made. >> i hope you're right. i will read this question. much of the administration's political policy and legal agenda

to extend health-care benefits to same-sex couples and repeal doma. nobody thinks it is fast enough right now. i know the president cares about this and is working on reversing don't ask don't tell. >> what she said. [laughter] i understand why people are impatient with the pace of progress. mostly in the right direction, there's a question of pace. i understand we have only been

. >> on the issue of the doma brief, one of your colleagues lisa brown said some of the language she didn't think should have been in there. can you clarify whether that brief was cleared here at the white house, whether it represents the white house's view? >> you didn't ask the staff secretary? >> it wasn't a press conference, it was a panel discussion. can you clarify whether it was -- >> i don't know the answer to that. >> do you know if there's any discussion under way about maybe modifying or changing it? >> nothing i'm aware of, no. george? >> what do you see as a realistic timetable for getting immigration reform through congress? >> as i talked about last week, the president will have a meeting at the white house on thursday, that will be with those that have supported and opposed in the past what the president believes is comprehensive immigration reform. i think this is as i described last week part of the ongoing and continued conversation, understanding that we have still got progress to make in order to get something like this through the house and the senate. i think t

the department of justice brief in the doma case did not exactly call us ped filse. there was a reference to various other things. i think the argument was if we have to allow this, we have to allow other things, which is completely ill logical, because making one change does not mean you have to change everything. you advocate for change a and you only make change a. they have some explaining to do to us. but obama has a proven pro-gay voting record in the u.s. senate and illinois senate. that is a fact. that is not rhetoric. that is not spin. that is the case. and i understand in politics the question is, what have you done for me lately? but somebody's past record is a good measure of what they're going to do in 2 future. and i am a reality-based activist. and supporting the furtherest fringe candidate is not my idea of advancing. host: if you want to find out more about the organization, you can go to their website glaa.org. as we show you, we will take another call. carl on our line for republicans. go ahead. caller: good morning. thanks for c-span. i just wante