View From the Hill: Obama's Silence

Equally eye-opening is the unbridled pressure that Latino politicians and lobby groups are bringing to bear on Washington. The Hispanic Caucus, for instance, sent a letter to the president urging him to nominate the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice -- a box that Obama checked off this week with his choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Hispanic activists have also been highly vocal about pushing for comprehensive immigration reform.

"There's going to be growing frustration if we don't see some tangible and real signals that this is going to be carried out in earnest this fall," Janet Murguia told Politico.com, suggesting that Obama needed to make it clear this summer that he wanted congressional action on the legislation. Murguia is president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group.

Let me be crystal clear here -- Hispanic advocates are lobbying privately and publicly, being invited to the White House for lunches and conferences, and still telling the press, mainstream and otherwise, that they expect results.

Next month the administration will apparently be presenting a package of pro-LGBT announcements. I'm not sure all of what will be included in that package, but I'm waiting to see if it will be enough. Will anything that doesn't address "don't ask, don't tell" and full marital rights satisfy the masses, who have shown increasing unrest lately?