Grasping its details could prove difficult, as [Les Aspin] himself demonstrated yesterday in response to a question from Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.). The senator asked Aspin what would happen in the case of a homosexual soldier who reveals his sexual orientation to another soldier, who then reports the conversation to a commander.

At first, Aspin said flatly that such a disclosure would not be grounds for dismissal. "An individual statement, with no other evidence presented, would not be credible information," Aspin explained. "It has to be part of a pattern - and you'd look, the commander would look at the totality of evidence, and decide whether there's an investigation."

that brought a puzzled response from [Sam Nunn], who quoted Aspin as saying in his opening remarks that homosexual "statements" were a form of prohibited conduct. "This directly contradicts what you said in your opening statement," Nunn said.