Oh, the machismo of it all ...

A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week reeked of testosterone while the assembled senators heard testimony from someone with real cojones: the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen. He was there to tell them that the 16-year-old lie known as "don't ask, don't tell" has got to end.

There's federal law against serving in our nation's armed forces if you "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts." From that sprung a strict policy: Don't tell anyone you're gay or lesbian — and don't ask fellow service personnel if they are.

President Bill Clinton talked big about repeal, but then tiptoed away from it. President Barack Obama since has declared it ridiculous.

So was the admiral, along with the Bush-appointed, Obama-retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates, kissing up to the White House? No. They were saying, from their positions in military leadership, to stop the silliness.

Mullen said it well: "No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who their are in order to defend their fellow citizens."

That's a more roundabout and genteel version of what the great hawk Barry Goldwater put more bluntly a few decades ago: "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight."

Still, since the policy went into effect, more than 13,000 service people have been discharged as violators of the law. Some might have carried rifles — but a heck of a lot of them were highly capable, highly trained intelligence people, including speakers of Arabic and other languages badly needed by our forces.

Among our men and women in uniform, one credible survey has shown three-quarters of them unbothered by serving alongside gays.

Integrating gay troops wouldn't happen immediately; the brass are well aware of the steps — and the long time — it'll take. Just figuring out those steps would take a year.

But the starting gun hasn't even been fired yet, while one of the committee members was shooting off his mouth: Vietnam War hero John McCain, who as presidential candidate said he'd move to repeal if military leaders wanted it, was one of several angry guys accusing Mullen and Gates of trying to usurp senatorial power. But that was nuts; they want to change the law, not break it; otherwise why would they have bothered marching on Capitol Hill?

Our armed services need not just a few, but many, good men and women; what they're getting instead, thanks to lowered recruiting standards, are high-school dropouts and petty criminals. That's probably what's prompting career soldiers to leave, not the presence — so often known despite "don't ask" — of gays and lesbians.

Neither of New Mexico's senators serves on the Armed Services Committee, which, felizmente, isn't being run by Sen. McCain or the southern Republicans most miffed by Mullen. We should be able to count on votes to repeal from Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall if — or when — the issue reaches the full Senate.