Former Bush campaign chief tells magazine he's gay
gimmesometruth27
St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
so if this man in a position of power is gay, why would he have advocated the party platform and opposed gay rights for so long? he also said "bush was no homophobe". so my question to this guy is why did the party platform take priority over his own interests as a human being? i have absolutely zero respect for anyone who tows a party line even if it is in direct opposition to who they are as a person. ESPECIALLY when the bush administration was talking of favoring an ammendment to the US constitution stating marriage is between a man and woman only.....why would this guy work to deny rights to gays everywhere while being a closeted homosexual himself? that has never ever made any sense to me....he only came out now because questions would arise because of his support for legal challenge to prop 8....at least he is now going to work for gay rights instead of trying to repress his own sexuality and deny others their civil rights...
Former Bush campaign chief tells magazine he's gay
Ex-GOP chair says he will advocate for gay marriage, regrets not coming out earlier
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38857056/ns ... _politics/
Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay, The Atlantic magazine's politics editor reported Wednesday.
Marc Ambinder, who is also chief political consultant to CBS news, said in an online post that Mehlman told him in an interview that he concluded he was gay fairly recently and now wants to be an advocate for gay marriage.
Mehlman told The Atlantic that he anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.
"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman, now an executive vice president with the New York City-based private equity firm KKR told The Atlantic. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."
Behind-the-scenes advocacy
The Atlantic said that in off-the-record conversations, Mehlman previously voiced support for civil unions and beat back Republican officials' efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that Bush "was no homophobe," The Atlantic said. He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called "the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now."
Mehlman told The Atlantic that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus as it stepped up anti-gay initiatives. He said he was aware that Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategic adviser, worked to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.
Mehlman, The Atlantic said, acknowledged that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda.
He told the magazine he regrets not taking the party message to the gay community.
While in office, Mehlman dodged media efforts to confirm rumors and stories about his sexuality, he told The Atlantic. Republicans close to Mehlman either said they did not know, or that it did not matter, or that the question was offensive.
Party principles 'consistent'
In advocating for same-sex marriage, Mehlman told the magazine he would appeal to Republican principles.
"I hope that we, as a party, would welcome gay and lesbian supporters. I also think there needs to be, in the gay community, robust and bipartisan support [for] marriage rights."
Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman and longtime friend of Mehlman, told The Atlantic that "it is significant that a former chairman of the Republican National Committee is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage." Gillespie told the magazine he opposes gay marriage, but stalwarts like former Vice President Dick Cheney and strategist Mary Matalin advocate for gay rights.
But, Gillespie told the magazine, he does not envision the party platform changing anytime soon.
Former Bush campaign chief tells magazine he's gay
Ex-GOP chair says he will advocate for gay marriage, regrets not coming out earlier
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38857056/ns ... _politics/
Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay, The Atlantic magazine's politics editor reported Wednesday.
Marc Ambinder, who is also chief political consultant to CBS news, said in an online post that Mehlman told him in an interview that he concluded he was gay fairly recently and now wants to be an advocate for gay marriage.
Mehlman told The Atlantic that he anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition 8.
"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman, now an executive vice president with the New York City-based private equity firm KKR told The Atlantic. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."
Behind-the-scenes advocacy
The Atlantic said that in off-the-record conversations, Mehlman previously voiced support for civil unions and beat back Republican officials' efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that Bush "was no homophobe," The Atlantic said. He often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called "the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now."
Mehlman told The Atlantic that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus as it stepped up anti-gay initiatives. He said he was aware that Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategic adviser, worked to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.
Mehlman, The Atlantic said, acknowledged that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda.
He told the magazine he regrets not taking the party message to the gay community.
While in office, Mehlman dodged media efforts to confirm rumors and stories about his sexuality, he told The Atlantic. Republicans close to Mehlman either said they did not know, or that it did not matter, or that the question was offensive.
Party principles 'consistent'
In advocating for same-sex marriage, Mehlman told the magazine he would appeal to Republican principles.
"I hope that we, as a party, would welcome gay and lesbian supporters. I also think there needs to be, in the gay community, robust and bipartisan support [for] marriage rights."
Ed Gillespie, a former RNC chairman and longtime friend of Mehlman, told The Atlantic that "it is significant that a former chairman of the Republican National Committee is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage." Gillespie told the magazine he opposes gay marriage, but stalwarts like former Vice President Dick Cheney and strategist Mary Matalin advocate for gay rights.
But, Gillespie told the magazine, he does not envision the party platform changing anytime soon.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Making drugs illegal corners the market for drug dealers. Politicians get paid off by the cartels to keep it this way. By fighting against gay marriage as a homosexual, this guy has gotten loads of money, power within the Republican party, and has made it harder for others to be openly gay by not supporting rights for this group, suppressing competition for available weiner so he can hoard it himself.
Actually, it was probably just the power and money. I'm sure he's got lots of supporters out there right now though, ha ha.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
To try to keep this under wraps for 43 years, you either need to be so brainwashed thinking this is somehow wrong, or you just hide it because you are so worried about making money that you don't care about anyone else who is the same as you.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20 ... y-marriage
The news that former Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman is now openly gay and will raise funds and strategize for the campaign to legalize gay marriage is a stunning reversal. During Mehlman's tenure as head of the Republican National Committee and as an adviser to the 2004 Bush campaign, Mehlman helped spearhead some of the most aggressively anti-gay initiatives in American politics.
Though his sexuality was something of an open secret in Washington circles, in his public career Mehlman worked on numerous high-profile anti-gay efforts, beginning with the proposed 2004 constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage.
Back in 2004, gay marriage was still a very effective wedge issue that the Republican Party used to generate high voter turnout in a tough election year, despite Vice President Dick Cheney's public disagreement with the strategy.
Bush adviser Karl Rove's "active strategy was to divide and conquer by microtargeting religious conservatives and turn out in big numbers against gay marriage — and for George W. Bush," writes Wayne Slater, who co-authored with Jim Moore a book about Rove called "The Architect." In November 2006 alone, eight states endorsed initiatives banning gay marriage. In 2004, 11 states banned gay marriage.
Mehlman told the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder that he was aware that Rove was working to make anti-gay-marriage initiatives pop up all across the country in 2004 and 2006 to spur conservative voters to come out for both the initiatives and the Republican Party:
He said that he "really wished" he had come to terms with his sexual orientation earlier, "so I could have worked against [the Federal Marriage Amendment]" and "reached out to the gay community in the way I reached out to African-Americans."
Mehlman, in fact, said he supported the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage at the time.
In 2004, he condemned "activist judges" for legalizing gay marriage. "We believe [marriage] ought to be defined by the people in the states," he said on CNN. "And, unfortunately, you have had some judges in Massachusetts, some activist judges, who are trying to redefine it for the whole country."
Blogger Joe Jervis has rounded up some of Mehlman's earlier statements and campaign activities on the issue. In 2005, for example, Mehlman told a crowd at an Ohio GOP fundraiser that "Republicans are for government that stands on the side of marriage, and on the side of strong families."
Mehlman somewhat changed his tune by January of 2008, when he told Charlie Rose in an interview that he did not support an amendment to the Constitution. "I generally think that's a document we ought to be very careful before we amend," he said, adding that he thinks that the states should arrive at their own decision on the gay-marriage question.
Despite this track record, powerful members of the gay-rights community seem ready to let bygones be bygones and welcome Mehlman into their ranks.
"I have spent no time thinking about where Ken was four to five to six years ago. I'm just thankful that he's with us today," Chad Griffin, co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, told the Advocate.
Griffin's organization is funding the legal challenge to California's gay marriage ban, which won a battle in federal court earlier this month but still faces a lengthy appeals process that many think will end with a Supreme Court ruling. Mehlman joins other prominent Bushies such as Ted Olson, Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace in fighting for gay marriage. Mehlman says his former colleagues have been "supportive" of his decision to live as an openly gay man.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
working for the rightwing as he did . Do you think he would have had any type of career if he was out .
Of course he wouldnt.
I feel sorry for the guy. Those who put him into those roles apposing gay marraige probably knew. What better publicity for the anti gay movement when A gay was one of the people making the laws
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
how to you know if he sold out for money and power? have you ever met him? there are many people who are gay who never come out out of fear. he might have hid this from himself, have you ever thought that?
yes he could have come out but that is not up to you or anyone else.
yes he could have come out but that is not up to you or anyone else.[/quote]
apparently his sexual orientation was well known in DC-Mehlman just didn't confirm it to the media. This crap about how he has just now come to terms with it is a lie. He was out according to Washington insiders as early as 2006. Bush apparently knew he was gay and didn't care (according to Mehlman). Their anti-gay stance was just used to get conservative Christians out to vote....apparently Karl Rove's idea. It's classic wedge issue politics. Can't win on substative subjects so pick something that will get people viscerally involved....gay rights, gun control, abortion, etc. The the segments of the population that vote based on those wedge issues will come out in full force. It's classic divide and conquer politics.
apparently his sexual orientation was well known in DC-Mehlman just didn't confirm it to the media. This crap about how he has just now come to terms with it is a lie. He was out according to Washington insiders as early as 2006. Bush apparently knew he was gay and didn't care (according to Mehlman). Their anti-gay stance was just used to get conservative Christians out to vote....apparently Karl Rove's idea. It's classic wedge issue politics. Can't win on substative subjects so pick something that will get people viscerally involved....gay rights, gun control, abortion, etc. The the segments of the population that vote based on those wedge issues will come out in full force. It's classic divide and conquer politics.[/quote]
how do you know its a lie. i have a friend who i had a feeling was gay but he never said anything. later on in life you realize that he was gay. just because others think your gay doesn't mean you are.
how do you know its a lie. i have a friend who i had a feeling was gay but he never said anything. later on in life you realize that he was gay. just because others think your gay doesn't mean you are.[/quote]
well, apparently Mehlman's boyfriends believed he was gay.
apparently his sexual orientation was well known in DC-Mehlman just didn't confirm it to the media. This crap about how he has just now come to terms with it is a lie. He was out according to Washington insiders as early as 2006. Bush apparently knew he was gay and didn't care (according to Mehlman). Their anti-gay stance was just used to get conservative Christians out to vote....apparently Karl Rove's idea. It's classic wedge issue politics. Can't win on substative subjects so pick something that will get people viscerally involved....gay rights, gun control, abortion, etc. The the segments of the population that vote based on those wedge issues will come out in full force. It's classic divide and conquer politics.[/quote]
dasvidana answered this before i could. the fact is people knew he was gay, he knew he was gay, yet he worked against his own sexuality, his own self as a human being, and kept hundreds of thousands of gays and lesbians from getting equal protection under the law. there is a special place in hell for people like mehlman.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Our society doesn't do any favors for gays. And while his work in the past was part of the problem, it's good to see people change and start making better decisions.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Well, I am glad we had this discussion.
As Jon Stewart put it last night, whether or not he was gay at the time shouldn't have mattered when he was trying to deny equal rights to a certain group of individuals. You shouldn't be only looking out for the interests of people "like you" - you should be looking out for everyone's best interests at all times.
The gist of his argument was this: him "not knowing" he was gay and being against gay rights, and then suddenly realizing he was gay and supporting gay rights, is the same as if he was against equal rights for black people until he suddenly learned he was part-black, and then turning around and supporting equal rights for black people. Oh, so NOW they deserve equal rights! Because they're like you they deserve equal rights, when before they were "different" and therefore less deserving.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."