For many years, Ken Mehlman worked to prop up elected anti-gay bigots, including running the virulently anti-gay reelection campaign of George W. Bush in 2004. Now that he’s finally coming out, Mike Rogers is giving Mehlman his ‘Roy Cohn Award’, his reporting from several years ago having been validated:
If I first started writing about Mehlman in 2004, why is Ken getting his Roy Cohn Award now? Because I am able to report – here for the first time — that Ken Mehlman, the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee is set to come out of the closet in a column by Atlantic writer Marc Ambinder Friday morning or early next week. This will be on the heels of him being included in fundraising letter supporting marriage equality.
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The three people most responsible for the anti-gay actions of the Bush reelection campaign are Mehlman, Karl Rove and Bush. In addition to his role at the RNC, Mehlman served in the first Bush Administration as White House Political Director. In 2004 he was the general chairman of the Bush reelection campaign.
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If this move doesn’t call for a Roy Cohn Award, I don’t know what does. Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchestrated his coming out is, our community should hold him accountable for his past.
If it seems like Mike is being harsh, it’s because he is, and I understand where he’s coming from. Mike goes on to explain how Mehlman could actually redeem himself:
I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for being the architect of the 2004 Bush reelection campaign. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for his role in developing strategy that resulted in George W. Bush threatening to veto ENDA or any bill containing hate crimes laws. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for the pressing of two Federal Marriage Amendments as political tools. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for developing the 72-hour strategy, using homophobic churches to become political arms of the GOP before Election Day.
And those state marriage amendments. I want to hear him apologize for every one of those, too.
I agree. Ken Mehlman cynically used his position of influence to rake in mountains of cash for himself, and he willingly did it on the backs of his gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. If Mehlman is still a Republican, I’m sure the GOProud people will embrace him with open arms, because they don’t really care if a person is anti-gay or gay-supportive. They’re pretty much in it for tax cuts and self-shaming purposes. Mehlman will fit right in, in that case. But if he suddenly wants to become a spokesman for The Gays and The Equality, he’s got a lot of explaining and apologizing to do.
He’s one of the very few people I would like to see not able to marry, once the rest of you are. I think every state should enact Civil Rights for Everyone except Ken Mehlman laws.
Mike is spot on.
A few months ago we wrote about Mehlman buying a home in the West Village. I guess it did not take long for the gayborhood to have an effect on him.
I hope I do not run into him unless he first apologizes for his unconscionable deeds.
I’d be interested in finding out what his excuses are. Was he pulling a george rekers? A Roy Ashburn? what?
Here’s hoping he spends a lot of time as a social/sexual pariah, with plenty of alone time to think about what he’s done. Ken Mehlman is the gay Benedict Arnold, the American Eva Braun.
[...] piece directly below this one broke the news that Ken Mehlman, former RNC chair, would be coming out in an article from Marc [...]
I will try not to be too harsh in judging him. Those of us who have come out late in life realize the extent your mind will go to to convince YOURSELF you are not gay. I have been there, I have done it. I voted for Pat Buchanan once, and, yes, I am sorry for that part of my life. Many people go through what Mr Behlman has gone through. He was just unfortunate enough to have a position of power where his attempts to convince himself he was not gay had a profound negative impact on gay people in general.
Another homo-hatin’-homo. No news there
so he’s seen the light, joining the likes of so many right wingers deserting that sinking ship.
Better, I suspect he’s being less than ingenuous about the time line. just recently? I doubt it. He may not have known he was gay, but I’m sure his attractions were down on there knees in the mensroom at the local park.
May he have a boyfriend who is both a drama queen AND a lousy lay until he makes up for this.
I have mixed feelings. I’m livid at what he did. How many kids commited suicide as a result of his homophobic campaigns?
However, as a pragmatic matter he should be welcomed and accepted. If people like Mehlman are humiliated when they come out — they will remain in the closet. We sometimes must bite our tongues for the greater good to send the message to other right wing closet cases that the community will support you. The quicker we can get these folks out, the quicker the closet will fall.
I agree with you Wayne. Part of me want to scream at him that it’s too bad so many people had to suffer because of the path he chose to take–but I don’t think it would be productive. I always think that, if people truly want to do something for the good of us all it doesn’t help to exact revenge. I just hope he really means it.
Amen to that Wayne. The stuff I’m reading from some folks does give a good reason why some folks remain in the closet. One really sticks out as just plain nasty – “The only way I will accept an apology from Mehlman is when it’s attached to a suicide note.”
What kind of crap is that?
Turn him loose on NOM. Turn him loose on NARTH. Turn him loose on FoF. Turn him loose on Pat Robertson. Turn him loose on Rick Warren. Turn him loose on Janice Crouse. Turn him loose on CLiff Kincaid. Turn him loose on all the organizations that fought against bullying and hate legislation in the various States. Turn him loose against the school boards that caved into pressure from a small handful of bigoted parents that prevented the formation of gay-straight alliances in schools.
Turn him loose against every Rabid Right Wing Whacko that ran with his Preout position as fast and far as they could.
Apologize to one and all, and look the Right in the eye unflinchingly and say, “I was WRONG. So too are you.”
Then, he should sell all he has and give the proceds to organizations that help homeless gay youth.
[...] Mehlman is gay gay gay gay GAY gay super-duper gay. Ann Coulter made fun of Joseph Farah and his WorldNetDaily [...]
I have no sympathy for a vicious homophobe and Iraq War criminal like Ken Mehlman. I don’t care what his sexual orientation is.
Mehlman’s past is an unchangeable fact, whether he comes out or not. While I share the feelings of disgust about his past, the fact is that we all benefit by him finally coming out. Ironically, his past may make the benefit much greater than it would have been otherwise.
We need to move forward by staying focused on our own best interests, and part of doing that means we need to make it easier, not harder, for prominent conservatives to come out. In terms of how it resonates in the culture, I’d say that Mehlman’s coming out is a significantly greater benefit compared to a prominent Liberal coming out. The Right Wing can’t as easily ignore someone coming out when it is “one of their own.”