Ken Mehlman Is Gay

7:47 pm EST August 25th, 2010 | Conservative, Republicans | 29 Comments

ken mehlmanI’m not going to lie. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how blacks, latinos, and gays can just smile and nod for the right when they actively dislike people like you so vehemently. In the case of Mehlman, he was RNC chair while Bush and the GOP team were running on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage back in 2004. It’s almost like a black man working to elect Strom Thurmond. Sick stuff.

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.

Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), 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,’ said Mehlman, now an executive vice-president with the New York City-based private equity firm, KKR. ‘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.’

Also, is there anyone who hasn’t been lobotomized that believes Mehlman’s contention that this is a recent discovery? The story has been going around for years, and even someone like myself who isn’t plugged in to the DC political gossip scene has heard it.

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29 Responses to “Ken Mehlman Is Gay”

  1. Ara says:
    August 25, 2010 at 7:55 pm

    “It’s almost like a black man working to elect Strom Thurmond…” to this I would add “…while he filibustered the Civil Rights bill in the Senate.”

  2. Wilbur says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    Also, is there anyone who hasn’t been lobotomized that believes Mehlman’s contention that this is a recent discovery?

    It’s conceivable. Deep self-deception is pretty much a prerequisite for being a republican any.

  3. Wilbur says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    …way.

  4. Bitter Scribe says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    Three kinds of people who can’t out themselves as gay until they retire: athletes (most of them, anyway), actors and Republican operatives.

  5. Quaker in a Basement says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    It’s just so sad that Ken was the last person to find out.

  6. Marco says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    Ken Cohn.

  7. Barry says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    I’m not going to lie. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how blacks, latinos, and gays can just smile and nod for the right when they actively dislike people like you so vehemently.

    It’s easy Willis, “Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises.” Ayn Rand

  8. timmy says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    Perhaps, his is a psychological denial which, working to remain unconscious, must release ze pressure via unconscious projections and reaction formations lest ze head explodes. Pop.

  9. Burn says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    Maybe he’s paving the way for Lindsay Graham.

  10. Repack Rider says:
    August 25, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Jeopardy answer: Ken Mehlman is gay, and a five dollar bill has a picture of Lincoln.

    “Alex, I’ll go with, ‘What are two things everyone in Washington knows?’”

  11. Tyro says:
    August 25, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    I’m not going to lie. I don’t understand it.

    When I read that Ken Mehlman is now an executive vice president at a private equity fund, I understood why he didn’t speak out about Bush’s 2004 anti-gay-focused re-election campaign. It was all about sticking it out as a good soldier so that later on he good reap the rewards of loyalty.

  12. william says:
    August 25, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage. He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe.” 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.”

  13. Joanne says:
    August 25, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    David Brock’s book Blinded by the Right speaks pretty clearly to this phenomenon from the standpoint of gay men, I think.

  14. Repack Rider says:
    August 25, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    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.”

    Sounds made up. Nobody could be that dumb.

  15. Vince says:
    August 25, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    “I don’t understand how blacks, latinos, and gays can just smile and nod for the right when they actively dislike people like you so vehemently.”

    These people are called Log Cabin Republicans. There’s even a harder core version calling themselves GOProud.

  16. Indeed says:
    August 25, 2010 at 11:02 pm

    Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage.

    Privately? Privately?? Gosh, what a mensch. And what, pray tell, did the menschy Mehlman manage to beat back? Not putting gays to death? (That would be a laugh line, but for the fact that that ultraconservative The Family (virtually entirely Republicans) recently lobbied Uganda to pass a law to do just that.) This is such a load of bullshit. I recall “leaks” saying that Colin Powell was just all torn up about that UN testimony that turned out to be dogshit, dang it, just what could the fella do? Fuck him, too.

    He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe.”

    “Sorry fags, it’s just bizness. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.” No sale. That’s like saying that Rush Limbaugh doesn’t hate black people. Even if true, he’s exploiting the shit out of the haters for his own gain. Duh.

    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.”

    Totally! Remember when the rallying cry for the Iraq Invasion was, “Invade Iraq! Those people are total homophobes!”? Me neither. Did the George Bush, Jr. Administration invade Saudi Arabia and nobody told me?

    Oh, wait, william, what was I thinking? Mr. Mehlman only just came to terms with his sexuality at age 43, he couldn’t possibly have “voiced support for civil unions” back when. Back when he was a good Republican. And too bad that he didn’t have this sudden epiphany two years after Prop Hate passed in California. His voice could have made a difference. But I guess he said some stuff privately. Privately. I thought the whole fucking point was that what one does in private doesn’t fucking matter. What’s wrong with you right wing assholes?

  17. Zython says:
    August 25, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    It’s easy Willis, “Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises.” Ayn Rand

    Premise seems pretty sound to me.

    As for why they do it. That’s easy: $$$.

  18. Indeed says:
    August 25, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe.”

    Paraphrasing the great Chris Rock: What do you have to do to be a homophobe, murder Matthew Shepard?

  19. jeff says:
    August 26, 2010 at 9:52 am

    There’s no hatred quite as strong as self-hatred. A nugget a wisdom from a formerly right wing relative who has since come out.

  20. Indeed says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:12 am

    Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage.

    Here’s some of the late Tim Russert’s interview with then-RNC Chair Ken Mehlman from Meet the Press, on June 5 2005‬‪.

    MR. RUSSERT: Will the president continue to push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage?‬‪

    MR. MEHLMAN: The president strongly believes that marriage in this country ought to be between a man and a woman. He also believes it is something that ought to be decided by the people. He doesn’t believe that judges ought to impose their will on the people. And because there have been a number of judicial decisions, most recently in Nebraska, that have made that decision for the people. He believes that a constitutional amendment is appropriate so the people can weigh in. It’s something that’s before the United States Senate. It’s one of their agenda items they intend to move on this year, and I think we can expect to see them do that.‬‪

    MR. RUSSERT: You’ve been trying to broaden the base of the Republican Party and yet Log Cabin Republicans, gay Republicans, issued this statement in the course of last year’s election: “…it is impossible to overstate the depth of anger and disappointment caused by the President’s support for an anti-family Constitutional Amendment. This amendment would not only ban gay marriage, it would also jeopardize civil unions and domestic partnerships. … Some will accuse us of being disloyal. However, it was actually the White House who was disloyal to the 1,000,000 gay and lesbian Americans who supported him four years ago in 2000. Log Cabin’s decision was made in response to the White House’s strategic political decision to pursue a re-election strategy catered to the radical right. … Using gays and lesbians as wedge issues in an election year is unacceptable to Log Cabin…”‬‪

    MR. MEHLMAN: I would respectfully disagree with their statement on that. I think this is an issue in which there’s some disagreement. The fact is if you look at the exit polls about 23 percent of gays and lesbians voted for this president, so lot of folks disagreed with what the Log Cabin Republicans said. I’m glad they’re supporting the president’s position on Social Security. But I think that fundamentally for the president and for millions of Americans, this is an issue of principle. Who should decide on a critical question of how we define marriage in this country? Should it be decided by an activist court or by the people? We believe the people should make this decision.‬‪

    MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?‬‪

    MR. MEHLMAN: I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t think it matters to the fundamental question here because at bottom, this president believes in non-discrimination. He believes in equal treatment. He believes in respect for all. He also believes, separate and apart from that question, that the fundamental question of marriage ought to be defined in the way it’s been defined for more than 200 years of our nation’s history, which is by the people’s representative at the state legislatures.‬‪

    MR. RUSSERT: But the Log Cabin Republicans will say if you’re born gay, it’s a biological determination, not a matter of choice.‬‪

    MR. MEHLMAN: And that’s–that may be, but the fact is that’s irrelevant to question of the public definition of marriage. They’re two totally different issues.‬‪

    But now we’re told that privately, in off-the-record conversations, Mehlman “pushed back”. I’m sure that will be of great comfort to the friends and families of the thousands and thousands of teenagers who annually take their own lives because they were told by people like the Mehlman Administration that being gay is not socially acceptable. I’m sure the friends and family of Matthew Shepard and other gay people who were lynched for their sexual identity will sleep better tonight knowing that Mehlman was only following orders.

    The Modern Republican Party is not a nice outfit.

  21. Dennis says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:14 am

    Doesn’t sound at all like Ken Mehlman hates himself, jeff.

    From what he said quoted in the article, sounds just the opposite, in fact.

  22. hnice says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:26 am

    “Doesn’t sound at all like Ken Mehlman hates himself, jeff.”

    Personally, I agree with Dennis. It’s entirely possible that a person would not decide / know they’re gay (or become gay) until later in life, and I don’t know that the only thing that would cause this would be self-hatred.

    I’m not saying he’s a good person, or perfectly happy, but there are a lot of different people out there. This is not to say that there are not self-hating gays out there, or that gay republicans are not disproportionately self-hating — just that I don’t know that that’s true for all of them, or for this guy.

    Now, re: the big rant:

    “But this idiotic notion that we right-wingers ‘actively dislike people’…..well, ‘just because,’ is so stupid it’s beyond belief. ”

    So (where to start?) is the claim here that prejudices related to race or sexuality don’t exist? Like, we have thousands of years of human history that suggest that lots of people hate a variety of groups just because.

    And anyway, it’s not ‘just because’ — it’s because of how their parents raised them, something that happened to them, a movie, a book, a tv show, a teacher — which doesn’t make it right, but mental stances have precursors. Racism is irrational, but no one’s making the claim that it’s un-caused.

  23. Indeed says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:34 am

    But this idiotic notion that we right-wingers ‘actively dislike people’…..well, ‘just because,’ is so stupid it’s beyond belief.

    Exactly. Late Republican king-maker Jerry Falwell and Serious Republican Thinker Dinesh D’Souza and Republican Cheerleader Kathryn Jean Lopez and all-around awful person Ann Coulter and the entire, wildly politically influential Christian Right and a multitude of other assorted Republican shitheads and shithead associations don’t ‘actively dislike people’. They merely feel like certain people are abominations and will burn in hell for all eternity because they are abominations. That’s all. Sheesh.

  24. Indeed says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:38 am

    And as for the rest of the Modern Republican Party, it’s nothing personal. They just like to use others’ hatred of gay people as a wedge issue to get votes so that they can dismantle Social Security. It’s just business. Sheesh. What’s the big deal, anyway?

  25. fafaroo says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:50 am

    I also think a lot of times what gets called ‘hate’ by leftists such as OW is in actuality a bit of resentment.

    Yeah! Come on guys! It’s not “racial hatred” it’s “racial resentment“!

    We don’t hate black people because they’re black.

    We hate black people because they’re lazy, unprincipled, un-American thieves.

    See the difference? See?

  26. Indeed says:
    August 26, 2010 at 10:55 am

    Wonkette says it slightly differently:

    Rumors about former RNC chair Ken Mehlman’s Complete Gayness have been swirling around for years and years. Mike Rogers outed him several years back, as part of his campaign to rid the political world of homosexuals who cynically use the rest of the gay community as bait in order to convince rubes, yahoos, bumpkins and other morons to set down the teevee clicker even if it means missing the last five minutes of The 700 Club, in order to go out and vote Republican, due to abject fear of gays. Mehlman’s sins were particularly egregious, since we are after all talking about the guy who helped run the most anti-gay presidential campaign in history, which gave us Four More Years of the Crawford hick and his handlers, Karl and Dick…
    Oh, but if you had done it years ago, Kenneth, you wouldn’t have made eleventy billion dollars by publicly fighting the gay demons in your mind, for Evil, which you then used to buy a swanky $3.7 million man-pad in Chelsea.

    One can’t help but wonder how Mr. Mehlman feels about the angry mob mentality of the anti-NotaMosqueNotatGroundZero crowd. I’m guessing that since he’s not a Muslin [sic], he’s in favor of the mob. Happy to be shown wrong.

  27. Matt Osborne says:
    August 26, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    Here’s the video of Bill Maher outing Mehlman on Larry King Live in 2006.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Jub4Itpm4

  28. Zython says:
    August 26, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    @Steven

    Oh, joy, another entitled WASP telling minorities that they’re stupid for not voting the way he wants them to.

    Zzzzz…

  29. Indeed says:
    August 26, 2010 at 11:22 pm

    From the Wonk Room, who could have predicted?

    When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, Fox News barely mentioned the story and its most prominent conservative commentators ignored it entirely. Yesterday, after the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported that former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman — who had orchestrated President Bush’s gay-bating 2004 re-election campaign — was coming out as gay, Fox News remained similarly mum and as of this posting has yet to run a single segment on the story.

    A Wonk Room review of Critical Mention reveals that CNN mentioned the name “Mehlman” 19 times, MSNBC reported on it 12 times (searches for “gay” and “Ken” produced similar results, with Fox News stuck at 0)
    It’s unclear why Fox News ignored the story, since some Republicans have embraced Mehlman’s coming out. The Wonk Room argues that Fox has a history of ignoring stories that undermine conservative causes.

    Fox News and the Modern Republican Party are run by bad people.