[nasaki]

August 25, 2010 6:19 PM
Ken Mehlman, Bush Campaign Manager, Comes Out as Gay


Posted by Brian Montopoli 45 comments

Ken Mehlman.
(Credit: AP Photo/Stephen J. Boitano-File)
Former Republican National Committee chairman and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman has announced publicly that he is gay, CBS News chief political consultant and politics editor for The Atlantic Marc Ambinder reports.

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman said. "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, but I didn't."

Mehlman was RNC chairman from 2005 to 2007 after serving as Bush-Cheney campaign manager in 2004. He also served as White House political director during President Bush's first term.


Mehlman told Ambinder that he had recently come to the conclusion that he is gay and was looking to become an advocate for gay marriage. He went public in part because he expected to be asked about his sexuality when it became known he was participating in a fundraiser next month for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which is supporting a legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 initiative banning gay marriage.

Mehlman said President Bush "is no homophobe" but acknowledged that the Bush administration used antigay initiatives for political gain. In private conversations with senior Republicans, he said, he fought back against attempts to demonize same-sex marriage.


Activist Mike Rogers, as Ambinder notes, has waged a years-long campaign to force Mehlman out of the closet, including confronting him with questions about his sexuality on video. (Mehlman regularly denied that he was gay.) Rogers responded to the news that Mehlman was coming out by awarding him a "Roy Cohn Award" for "managing the most anti-gay presidential campaigns in history."


"Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchestrated his coming out is, our community should hold him accountable for his past," Rogers wrote.


Mehlman told Ambinder he understands that some people in the gay community will be upset that he did not come out until he was out of government.


"I can't change the fact that I wasn't in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally," he said. He acknowledged that if he had come to terms with his sexual orientation earlier, "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."


Check out Ambinder's full report here.

Tags:gay ,Ken Mehlman Topics:Republicans What's Your Take? Awesome1Shocking2Infuriating5Important

http://www.cbsnews.com/8300-503544_1...butor=10361558

[golfrulz]

heard that he wants to be bengay quayle's campaign mgr.

[Chuck Sims]

This has been an open secret for the past 6 years.

[golfrulz]

This has been an open secret for the past 6 years.

an open secret lol Oxymoron

[DwightShrute]

an open secret lol Oxymoron

like jumbo shrimp

[DwightShrute]

on topic of the thread...

Is coming out of the closet big news still?

[brooks85]

seriously who give a ****. If this was a democrat coming out nasaki would have never made the thread.

[nasaki]

if this was a dem coming out it would be hot off the press & into SBR political forum in a heart beat by one of you teabaggers and brooks85 would be the 1st to chime in.

[andywend]

Nasaki, are there any group of people that you are NOT biased against?

I thought liberal democrats were supposed to be tolerant of gays?

if this was a dem coming out it would be hot off the press & into SBR political forum in a heart beat by one of you teabaggers and brooks85 would be the 1st to chime in.

There are probably more gay democrats in Washington than straight democrats. If a high-profile democrat came out and said he was STRAIGHT, then that would be news.

Are you a bigot when it comes to all gays or just republican gays?

Hey, pool boy, don't you have a pool to clean?

[nasaki]

Hey Andy don't you have a bomb to build? I'm waiting for you to press that button & wipe out all dems in the U.S. And you're the outspoken bigot who's against gay marriage.

[andywend]

Rest assured Nasaki, if I ever figure out a way, you will be the VERY FIRST to go.

I'm proud to say that I am 100% OPPOSED to gay marriage as is the vast majority of the country.

However, you don't see me starting threads bashing gays who have the courage to come out of the closet.

You are full of HATE and ANGER but I guess thats what happens when you continue to FAIL in everything you set out to do.

What are you going to do when republicans take back the house (and possibly the senate) and all that free money you're collecting from the government stops arriving in front of the trailer you're living in?

[nasaki]

Hey genocide andy...............where in this thread or in any other thread have I bashed gays? Has it ever occur to you the reason I posted this thread is show the hypocrisy of GOPukes? Remember in 2004 this same guy was in charge of BUSH's campaign in which they were against gay marriage & wanted to add a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage?

If they don't take back the house or senate will you leave this board for good and spend 100% of your time in finishing that nuke device you will use to wipe out all dems?

I've got my dick cheney brand of duct tape & plastic ready for when you push that button.

[Poster X]

he shore has purty lips.