Never saw this coming:
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.”
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.”
Mehlman’s leadership positions in the GOP came at a time when the party was stepping up its anti-gay activities — such as the distribution in West Virginia in 2006 of literature linking homosexuality to atheism, or the less-than-subtle, coded language in the party’s platform (“Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country…”). Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus. He was aware that Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief strategic adviser, had been working with Republicans to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.
What is the world coming to? Next they will tell me Roger Clemens is on steroids!
I kind of felt a twinge of sorrow for him until I read the bit about Republicans fighting “Islamic jihad” for the gay rights. But that, on top of the horrible pain he and that team inflicted on gay people makes just wish awful things that I’d rather not repeat. I know, I know, that violates the Balloon Juice credo of “If you can’t say anything nice put it on the front page of the blog,” but I’m really having some nasty thoughts about this choad.
And where are Billmon’s archives about the evil and self-loathing lavender bund?
greennotGreen
Heck, where is Billmon? I miss Billmon and MediaWhoresOnline. sniff.
But yeah, re: Mehlman – it’s hard to feel any sympathy for those closeted in power who have been such dickwads to their brothers and sisters.
Tonal Crow
Deport. GOPers. Now.
Comrade Kevin
They’re not the greatest anti-gay force in the USA, though. That would be the Republican party.
KansasVoter
Surprise, surprise. I could have told Ken that he was gay the moment that I saw him. Now when will Lindsey Graham come out of the closet?
WereBear
I get it: first make the money, then see the light.
Now that he’s on the market… has he wondered how that market might feel about him? Does he figure he’ll get drinks bought on the curiosity of finding out what Karl Rove is really like?
Eric U.
I’m not a big fan of Islamic jihad, and I far prefer having the Democratic party in charge of my government when terrorists are threatening the U.S. Somehow having racist protesters out in front of a future Islamic community center doesn’t make me feel any safer, just imagine.
Steve
I don’t think being a gay Republican, or a black Republican or whatever, automatically makes you self-loathing. But there’s a difference between being a black Republican and being the black Republican who made the Willie Horton ad.
It’s hard to fathom how a gay man could sit there and preside over a national electoral strategy centered on anti-gay ballot initiatives. Just amazing.
MattR
@Comrade Kevin: Yep. I would place the odds of the “anti-gay forces” of Islamic jihad ever affecting the lives of gay Americas at precisely zero. Fundamentalist Christians on the other hand …
(EDIT: Gotta say the title of the post led me to think it was gonna be about a completely different news story)
danimal
Knock me over with a feather. There are, and have been, gay people in GOP leadership who have been cynically whipping up anti-gay hysteria? Whoodathunkit?
mr. whipple
Being attracted to men for 30 years eventually catches up with you, and a little bell goes off.
Douche Baggins
Being gay makes you a hummasekshul? Karl, meet Ken. Ken, Karl. Now you two little homo heathens fuck the fuck off.
eemom
why now?
Could the goopers be figuring that “one token is as good as another”, such that they could reinstate him as RNC chair with some cover for their asses in getting rid of Steele?
Dunno, just trying to think like they do.
bleh
@WereBear: One can hope that he gets his comeuppance (heh) from the community, but he’s been out and around long enough that I’m sure he has enough of a bubble to keep him feeling happy — and even that he’s having some success as an activist.
But “once a traitor, always a traitor.” He’ll need to stay inside his bubble if he doesn’t want to somehow keep finding himself among a bunch of silly, clumsy girls drinking red wine, dark liquors, whole pitchers of ale, etc.
MAJeff
Thing is, dude’s lying about the “recently” shit. It was an open secret in DC. It’s all about ass-covering and seeking sympathy. He’s as evil as ever.
And now he’s headlining a dinner for “Americans for Equal Rights” with Mary Cheney.
Better for the world these people were never born.
beltane
Hmmm. One wonders if the Family Research Council, NOM, and all the rest of Right-Wing Republican Religious Machine are OK knowing that all that they do, they do for the gays.
Ripley
Oppressive Republican Mehlman can suck a bag of dicks.
Too soon?
bemused
He’s still sounds like a deceptive republican if he thinks anyone believes he came to this conclusion about his identity “fair recently”.
DecidedFenceSitter
And there you go. The major difference between leadership and politicos within the Democratic and Republican parties.
Villago Delenda Est
My understanding is the knuckle dragging drooling bigots at FreeRepublic.com are not taking this news well, at all.
My heart pumps buttermilk for them, really it does!
Napoleon
Does this really surprise anyone?
beltane
@Steve: But he did it out of love, you see, because homophobic Christian extremists are the only thing protecting gays from homophobic Islamic extremists, just like slavery makes you free.
Gustopher
Can we send him to anti-gay therapy to remove these horrible gay feelings from him?
I just want to protect other gay men from him.
El Tiburon
Really? Weren’t rumors swirling back in the day?
Crashman
Choad… Nice, haven’t heard that one in a while.
But yeah, it’s awfully hard to feel sympathy for a guy like this. Yes, Ken, it’s true. Everyone has to “travel their own path” to find themselves. Unfortunately, your path helped demonize other people who weren’t as afraid of their true selves as you.
feebog
Maybe he could hook up with Ted Haggard and they could do a “We Love Teh Gay” tour or something. All they need is an RV and a little crystal meth to get things rolling.
toujoursdan
This gay man hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates hates slime like this. May he fall to a Nigerian scam and lose everything.
aimai
Jeezus, my gaydar was pinging and I never got within 500 miles of him. And I don’t have gaydar. Plus what the fucking fuck is up with the islam bashing? The Bush administration sided with islam on everything up to and including homophobia, torture, and etc… before they needed to make an example of Afghanistan and started murmering about the poor Afghan women. And refresh my memory but what was the Bush administration’s position on gay men and women seeking asylum in this country for homophobia and anti gay laws in their home countries?
aimai
lol
Paging Bill Maher….
mr. whipple
@Napoleon:
Only Ken, apparently.
Rminds me of that Onion classic: “Why do these gays keep sucking my cock”?
Roger Moore
@Comrade Kevin:
Damn, you beat me to it. I just don’t understand how the Republicans can be so oblivious to how badly their anti-minority rhetoric hurts them with minorities. Do they really think gays will ignore their anti-gay stances because the Republicans hate Muslims even more?
JWL
“He insisted, too, that President Bush “was no homophobe.””
No kidding. Remember when he told a male aide to the Canadian prime minister “you’ve got a pretty mouth”? WTF was that? GW Bush is as gay as a goose.
john b
shorter mehlman:
“now that i don’t have power to change things, i’m coming out”
dnelson
Oh, but is he a christian. Will the news cycle ignore. Yes and yes. Vomit, rinse and repeat. Is anyone else surprised. I am not.
Suffern ACE
@MAJeff: Yep. Recently, my butt. And don’t drag my folk out of the closet as cover for your “Only the GOP” can protect gay people from “Islamic Jihad.”
Pat Robertson did that the other night on his show…saying how he’s only trying to protect women from a religion that stresses battery of women. As if I don’t remember him in the 1980s and 90s decrying the founding of “women’s shelters” because they would encourage women to leave their husbands and blaming any domestic abuse story on women in the workplace.
beltane
@aimai: I thought Mehlman was “out” already. Only the most earnest of wingnuts could have missed that one.
Villago Delenda Est
@JWL:
I would not be the least bit surprised to discover that Jenna and not Jenna were delivered to the womb by artificial methods.
demo woman
@beltane: Running a homophobic campaign to attract evangelic Christians and Catholics is different, just because.
brat
Like other posters, Mehlman made my gaydar scream. I hope some reporter asks how he liked working with professional homophobes to screw over other queer people.
This is why I firmly believe in outing. Otherwise, to paraphrase Larry Kramer, “They’ll fuck us by day and they’ll fuck us by night.
No thank you.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
God, this is gross and disgusting.
I mean, my gaydar always went off the charts when Melman was on the tube, but to have him out and publicly on my team makes me want to switch sides.
And trying to justify staying in the closet while promoting the Repukes’ homophobic agenda is beyond the pale. These people never come out when it could really make a difference.
Hey John, how about you come out today also? Make it two for two! Call me…
Tonal Crow
@beltane: Yeah. It’s rather like the Republican argument that we’ve got to preemptively destroy our liberty because, if we don’t, the Islamic hordes will set off nukes in all our cities and in the aftermath everyone’ll demand that we destroy our liberty.
Josie
Like a couple of others here, I was a bit surprised by the word “recently.” I was reading about him on Aravosis’ blog two years ago. These people have absolutely no shame. They demonize people just for political advantage and then want to be accepted and understood when they have their great “revelation.” Yuck.
Tonal Crow
@brat: I agree. Outing gays who actively work to oppress other gays is not just ethical, but pretty close to ethically-required.
demo woman
@Josie: The first thing that I thought of was maybe he’s sick and needs to cleanse his soul like Atwater did.
Viva BrisVegas
Perhaps because to do so gay voters would have had to ally themselves with the second greatest anti-gay force in the world right now.
soonergrunt
Ken Mehlman is GAY?!
Holy Blindingly Obvious, Batman!
@mr. whipple:
You mean, this one?
http://www.theonion.com/articles/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock,10861/
mr. whipple
@soonergrunt:
Yup.
bkny
@greennotGreen:
billmon pops up on occasion at dkos:
http://billmon.dailykos.com/
Little Boots
I guess credit where credit is due. He’s a step up from Lindsey Graham at this point, for what it’s worth.
But “arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently”? Are these guys so used to lying all the time that even in the midst of a heartfelt confessional they have to throw in a big, obvious lie?
PhoenixRising
After this, no one can suggest that it’s possible to change a man’s sexual orientation. It just doesn’t pass the laugh test; Ken Mehlman made a career from demonizing gay people, but he stayed gay while doing it!
Although if conversion therapy DID work, I’m among a lot of people who would throw in $50 for his treatment–no gay man should ever have to say, ‘I’m with Ken’.
General Stuck
Once again I am reminded of the right wing proclivity for image and maintaining that image despite the obvious. It is almost like a god to worship, and allows them to be and do all sorts of nasty and hypocritical things. Growing up with a Reagan worshipping pappy, for the longest time, I thought there was something wrong with me for valuing openness and some respect for the truth of things.
Mehlman and his crocodile tears of angst is but a small example of this destructive trait of our wingnuts, and can lead to much more sinister things like torturing prisoners to protect under the false flag of self defense. It is insidious and permeates our politics because the media will not explode the many myths propagated by a few and believed by a large percent of our population, and our democratic leaders are afraid to challenge it for the same reason. So we all remain prisoner of lies and liars and small minds that soak it all up, that by and large have the memory and insight of amoebas. Rich country, Dumb country.
beltane
Thankfully, Andrew Sullivan is on vacation. Otherwise he’d be swooning about what a courageous, tortured soul Mehlman is, and how he is deserving of our prayers and compassion, etc.
It’s OK to admit that this guy is an opportunist prick who values the Republican party more than anything else.
bemused
We forget that recently or fairly recently undoubtedly have entirely different meanings in republican ‘we create our own reality’ world.
demo woman
He said that he plans to be an advocate for gay rights within the GOP, that he remains proud to be a Republican, and that his political identity is not defined by any one issue.
I guess it’s okay to bash the unemployed, welfare queens and all those Allah worshipers.
Just Some Fuckhead
Before this he was just yer average Republican joe that likes to suck cock.
Josie
@demo woman: That’s an interesting theory. It’s either that or he wants to get married with a clean heart. Anyone else want to play – what could motivate him to do this now?
Ahasuerus
@Ripley:
FTFY
Nah.
How about we shove a pineapple up his hypocritical godbot-whoring gay-bashing islamaphobe ass and ship him to Uganda?
Fucking kapo.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim): lolz
John is not, in fact, gay. Yet.
I’m hopeful.
beltane
@Josie: It’s the fashionable thing to do in Republican circles now. They have never had problems with homosexuals, it’s all in our imagination. They are at war with brown people this year. Excuse me: They have always been at war with the brown people.
Violet
@beltane:
So true. Even Glenn Beck is supporting gay marriage now. So’s that ditz on ‘The View’, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Enough of them will say it and their supporters will believe it.
bobbo
Jesus Christ, fuck you Ken Melhman. Fuck you until you’re dead. You could have quit your fucking job. You could have gone public when it might have made a difference. But no, you chose to enrich yourself at the expense of millions of people just like you. The gay equivalent of a Kapo.
Fuck you fuck you fuck you Ken Mehlman. The world would be a better place without you.
Just Some Fuckhead
@beltane: Gay Islamic Mexican Socialist Pro-choice terrorists on welfare. That is the real enemy.
LarsThorwald
Oh, kids, kids, kids….
I’ve lived and worked in D.C. for close to 15 years, which means that 3 out of every 4 of my friends works for some political group or another, and Ken Mehlman’s sexuality was without a doubt the worst kept secret in this town.
Josie
@beltane: So when and how did it become fashionable? What changed?
Emma
And he couldn’t just sit out the nasty, vicious campaigns? He couldn’t “go on a religious retreat to find himself” and skip out on the hate-fest? Naw. He participated and even helped fundraise for the haters.
I can deal with the haters, but the opportunistic bastards like him and Cheney’s daughter I hate with a passion.
arguingwithsignposts
@Viva BrisVegas:
We have a winner!
I find it curious that all of these right-wing “Come to teh ghey” politicos never go with a full conversion. I mean, I know several former fundamentalist evangelicals (myself included) who, upon their “conversion” or “realization” totally flipped viewpoints.
Hell, our own blog host flipped from conservative to DFH.
But these people never seem to grok the implications of their political viewpoints upon their selves and those like them.
I just don’t get it.
Little Boots
Muslim is the new gay.
Gay is now okay.
mr. whipple
@Josie:
He was going to be outed. With proof.
Shalimar
@bemused: I think by “identity”, he means his new identity as someone who actually gives a shit about other gay people. Because it can’t mean his “identity” as a gay male since anyone who has supposedly been cruising gay bars for years already knows he’s gay.
arguingwithsignposts
@LarsThorwald:
Worse than Lindsay Graham?
Just Some Fuckhead
My guess is Mehlman has found the “one”.
Little Boots
I’m guessing he wanted to be relevant again, somehow, and such a shift has happened in this country that he can actually have a second career as a gay rights Republican without sacrificing all his contacts, friends, and money making opportunities.
Keith G
It’s a pathology. I spent a few decades as an out political operative for the local Democratic Party. The Republican Gays were always strung a bit differently and a bit tighter.
I sometimes would feel bad for them….until they spoke.
Ken Mehlman fought on the side of evil. Screw ’em
Omnes Omnibus
In other news, water is wet and Louis Gohmert is an idiot.
Kyle
From commenter Candi Rue at Joe.My.God:
A homosexual is what he is because he has sex with men, but really this is wrong. A homosexual is somebody who, in 15 years of trying, cannot get a pissant anti-discrimination bill through the city council. A homosexual is somebody who knows nobody, who nobody knows. Who has zero clout. Does that sound like him?!
He has sex with men. But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true, he brings the guy he’s screwing to the White House and President Bush smiles at them and shakes his hand. . .
beltane
@Josie: Ted Olsen happened. And they lost — big — in California, which meant they had to declare victory and move on to the next field of battle.
As an electoral strategy they determined homophobia was a spent force, and that this year their interests would be better served by inciting racial and religious hatred. GOP insiders are the most cynical humans on the planet; they are insincere in all they say and do. Ken Mehlman is about the best example of this.
maus
Yeah, the Republican “feminists” justifying Iraq and Afghanistan (while implementing overseas fundamentalist and anti-woman politicians) by attacking Islam are similarly revolting.
@Keith G:
It’s also that whole politics “old boys’ club”. It’s just business, guys! Nothing personal.
chopper
@Crashman:
i’ve been trying to bring ‘choad’ back for years. i tried for a while to bring ‘douchebag’ back, but a buncha frat boys took it and shortened it to ‘douche’, which i think is just moronic. it’s like saying ‘what’s the diff’ ala that douchebag choad from 90210, or ‘za’ instead of pizza.
Just Some Fuckhead
Funny story that I haven’t copped to until now but me and a handful of other Democrats were contracted by the RNC to get Coleman elected over Franken. We totally fubarred it and the contract was pulled and then eventually Franken was declared the winner.
Good stuff.
Not sure how it’s relevant to the thread or what it has to do with my goat herding occupation but there it is. :)
beltane
@Little Boots: That’s about right. Really, there is nothing particularly profound here, just an opportunist taking advantage of another opportunity.
soonergrunt
@Just Some Fuckhead:
There, FIFY
suzanne
I’m sorry. I have all sorts of sympathy for my gay friends, and the shit they’ve been put through by society and by their families. I know they’ve all felt, at times, that it was easier to hide who they really were. And that makes me heartsick for them.
But I have no sympathy for motherfuckers like this. People who hide as long as it’s convenient for them, so they can make money or gain social capital and then use it to fuck over other people. Women, blacks, Arabs, the disabled, so forth and so on…they don’t get to hide. They don’t get the choice to pretend to not be a member of a marginalized class. So when someone from a marginalized group uses their dishonestly-achieved social capital to fuck over other marginalized people…God. I get so pissed off. Spineless bastards like this have earned themselves a shitload of bad karma. Bag of dicks seems apropos here, as well.
noncarborundum
@Little Boots:
Atheism, though, is apparently still the same old atheism:
It’s linked to atheism!? The horror! Now we know it’s a bad thing.
MAJeff
@Just Some Fuckhead:
OK, your blockquote read
I’m like, Iman is a man? And a gay man at that? Damn, I don’t even have to switch now, because for Iman, I would.
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: You have put a lot of thought into this, haven’t you? Have you considered whittling as a hobby?
NobodySpecial
I’m fairly certain he only came to the realization that he was gay the twelfth time Karl came to visit him in his bunk at Camp David.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
i whittled your mom just last night.
mr. whipple
As far as I’m concerned, this asshole can rot in hell, as well as the assholes in churches in my town that pushed the anti-gay marriage initiatives in the 2004 election.
It was no fun at all knocking on doors for Kerry in that election, in part because of the hate ginned up by the likes of Rove and Mehlman and spread like a disease through the rubes’ churches. Wonder if those suckers feel played now?
mr. whipple
@NobodySpecial:
Remember that doofus from Talon News that visited the WH about 3,245 times?
soonergrunt
@Just Some Fuckhead:
There, FIFY, and not in fucking moderation.
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: Dad, you comment here too?
WereBear
@mr. whipple: Yeah. There’s an untold story.
The only one less notsurprised than Mehlman would be Turdblossom himself.
beltane
@mr. whipple: Nah, they’ll never feel played. Gays? What gays? Did you hear that the Kenyan Obama wants to impose Sharia law on good Christians?
John B.
This is news? It’s been an open secret for years.
chopper
well, i say good on him for coming out, long long after it would have had a good positive impact. i’m sure the reason he waited until now was due to constant wrestling and soul-searching, not a need to avoid the political ramifications of coming out earlier.
Omnes Omnibus
@mr. whipple: Ohio in 2004 sucked. I was in Columbus then. One of the worst things was being at work around a**holes who were laughing about the passage of the gay marriage amendment in front of other co-workers who were gay and out. Oh, standing in the rain for three hours in the parking lot at Schiller Park in German Village waiting to vote wasn’t much fun either.
Silver Owl
He sure was the spineless coward for greed and attention. Not much different than Cheney nor McCain when the republicans started to attack their family members and they just went with the crowd for their personal egos.
mr. whipple
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yup. Fuck all of them.
bemused
@Shalimar:
You are much better at translating their language and discerning what they really are saying than I am. That’s actually a little scary.
demo woman
The AP has a story about Mehlman now which was picked up by the NYTimes.
SiubhanDuinne
@Little Boots #48:
*Are these guys so used to lying all the time that even in the midst of a heartfelt confessional they have to throw in a big, obvious lie?*
: : trying so hard to think of a new way to say SATSQ : :
Raenelle
Coming out is better than not. I don’t care if it’s just a baby step, if he’s way late, or just generally not nearly as enlightened and progressive and all-around good and decent and special like, say, me. This is a good thing, and it probably took some courage. Period.
TuiMel
That would have required, uh, integrity, courage, and a willingness to put one’s professional status at risk.
I’m glad Mehlman’s friends and colleagues have been wonderfully supportive. But, it simply reinforces my opinion that Republicans are unforgivably duplicitous on gay issues. It’s ok for Mary Cheney to be a lesbian and have a child with her partner, and I’m sure her family and Republican toady-friends were wonderfully supportive. But they do no think twice about fanning hatred and fear of gay people in general and working for legislation and social mores that reject and make them the “other.” It’s despicable.
That said, my Pollyanna gene makes me feel some compassion for Mehlman and wish him the serenity that being true to one’s nature must bring to him.
Brick Oven Bill
Apparently all the cocks he put in his mouth the last 43 years weren’t evidence enough for him.
Oh, yeah. This is the guy who didn’t realize the Bush Admin was incompetent until they were out of the White House.
soonergrunt
@TuiMel:
I on the other hand, hope that he dies alone for the very reasons you gave.
demo woman
@Raenelle: Why?
If he were courageous, he would have quit rather than work for a Party that was running anti-gay ads. He’s got a new gig and can make some money. That’s not courageous.
TuiMel
@Just Some Fuckhead:
That was my reaction, as well.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@mr. whipple: Oh, yeah, one of all-time classic Onion pieces.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/why-do-all-these-homosexuals-keep-sucking-my-cock,10861/
Omnes Omnibus
@TuiMel:
Maybe not being gay has denied me insight into the process and worry that are involved in coming out, so I don’t really feel much compassion for him. I see him as a sniveling little shit. If he was not yet ready to come out, or felt that he couldn’t do anything to stop the bigotry in his party, he could have chosen not to participate. He was a big part of that 2004 machine, so he gets a big part of the blame. I watched friends almost succumb to despair during that election season because of the way they were demonized. Hell, it made me feel guilty about getting married a few weeks after that election in Ohio because it didn’t seem fair. So, anyway, I say, “F*ck him.”
TuiMel
@soonergrunt:
Yeah, I knew I would not be in the majority and understand that POV.
Cat Lady
@beltane:
It’s also that one after another after another after another after another evangelical preacher or politician has turned out to be gay, and as we know, if it doesn’t happen to them personally, or affect someone they know and care about, conservatives can’t empathize. They’re losing the battle in the courts, but they also know now they’re losing the battle against their own nature. By the next election cycle be prepared to hear that they’ve always promoted gay marriage as a conservative family value. Duh.
Batocchio
Hahahahaha
That ranks up there with those periodic conservative “outreaches” to black voters, which generally go something like, “Why do you lazy, shiftless people keep voting for the Democrats, who think they’re better than you?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Batocchio: And Lincoln. They have been trying to coast on that dude for 145 years.
arguingwithsignposts
@Brick Oven Bill:
Who is this person and what have you done with the real BoB?!?!
demo woman
I went to Americablog to read what Aravosis had to say. I linked to his gay issues blog and found this gem. Of course he thinks Ken is brave.
Nellcote
Billmon’s Lavender Bundt
John O
It’s always really funny when the last person to recognize someone’s gay is the gay person.
Better late than never, I suppose.
morzer
@demo woman:
Has Aravosis visited the US in living memory?
arguingwithsignposts
@demo woman:
Then they are idiots.
Omnes Omnibus
@demo woman: How about Republicans with the power to do something about it? I bet one could find a metric shit-ton of former Democratic leaders who are in favor of gay marriage. BFD.
John O
Billmon is a genius.
I remember when the last Israeli-Lebanon war was brewing and happening, and Billmon was so far ahead of the curve on what was going down next it was downright creepy.
And I find it personally interesting he can’t quite stay out of the game, given his occasional posts at GOS. My sense is he’s a tortured soul.
WereBear
There’s the answer. It’s pandering.
I can just imagine the meeting, “Now Ken, we all know anyway… take this one for the Party!”
kommrade reproductive vigor
Let’s review:
A guy no one is surprised is gay is, in fact gay.
A GOPer is attempting to claim Bush wasn’t a homophobe because he never witnessed Bush beating the shit out of any gays (or whatever his reasoning is).
A GOPer who doesn’t want to lose his WingNut Welfare check thinks gays should team up with the GOP to fight the bad guys over there while the GOP continues to fuck them over here. (I’m sure you all remember the intense concern BAdmin expressed when the rise of extremist groups forced the GLB community in Iraq DEEP into the closet. Snort.)
He, Gay Patriots I & II and LCR can FoaD.
Keith G
@demo woman: Aravosis needs to put down the amyl nitate.
demo woman
@Nellcote: Thank you so much for the link. Billmon’s a genius.
mr. whipple
@morzer:
Avarosis is a fucking idiot.
Suffern ACE
@arguingwithsignposts: We’re not idiots. John Avarosis…how can this gay man make it clear to you? They don’t actually want gay voters and they will be returning those Log Cabin checks for the foreseeable future. They want young voters. They want women voters. They want to appear toleranty, but that doesn’t mean their policies are going to change. I’ll believe it when they start spearheading and funding repeal efforts for the stuff they did in 2004.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Virtual. As in Virtual Reality. As in imaginary.
It would be nice if this at least caused some of the bobble heads and fluffers to ask Congress critters what they think, but that would be too confrontational and possibly homophobic. (As defined by the GOP I think it involves mentioning one of their members is gay.)
Yup. Just like all those female Democratic voters who flocked to Palin and swept McCain into the … Oh wait. Never mind.
arguingwithsignposts
@Suffern ACE:
Oh, I didn’t mean all LBGT are idiots. Only those who might start considering the GOP as a “legitimate alternative” to the Dems. sorry if I wasn’t clear there.
Josh
@Kyle, Now I have an Al Pacino voice in my head.
President Bush isn’t a homophobe and he isn’t a racist: he’s just a guy whose policies killed gay people and black Americans. A lot of conservatives can’t think beyond the individual or a small group of their acquaintances (They make arguments like “I knew a guy who was in a union, and he used his job security as an excuse to be lazy”; “I spoke to a few Iraq War veterans and was persuaded that the war is worth it”), so the attitudes a person expresses in one-on-one encounters are all that matters.
Raenelle
@demo woman: Maybe I’m just stunted and can’t imagine a purely good, completely untainted act. But I’m of the opinion that nobility is more easily expressed when it’s encouraged by the simultaneous presence of self-interest.
wilfred
Fear and loathing in New York City!? For fuck’s sake, man:
Imagine if the driver had been…
Suffern ACE
@arguingwithsignposts: No, my apologies to you. I wasn’t ranting at you. I’m the one who wasn’t clear. John Avarosis is one of those “Activist Bloggers” who drives me nuts. Can’t tell the difference between Obama and Fred Phelps. Too often, he can’t tell the difference between someone who might support his position more fully someday and someone who would sooner die than sit at the table with him.
MattR
@Suffern ACE: You do have to remember that Avarosis was a Republican. It also applies to a lesser extent to our blog host and some of the commenters here. One of the problems when your choices for political party are “Batshit insane” or “Democrat” is that you end up with a lot of Democrats who have diverse values (and really only share the attribute of not being batshit insane).
Anne Laurie
@mr. whipple:
He always believed he was attracted to their giant, throbbing ideas.
Not to mention their saucy wink’n’nod, flash-and-hide way with a dangerous racist/sexist/antihumanist attack ad.
Anne Laurie
@eemom:
More likely (if it’s not purely personal on Mehlman’s part) the RNC plan would be “Look! Kweers and neegrows are slyly insinuating themselves into our lily-white purity halls! Start kicking in doors, what this country needs most is a Patriotism Purge(tm)! ! !”
Hal
I like this headline:
Much better…
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/08/repulsive-anti-gay-quisling-homophobic.html
Anne Laurie
@Kyle:
I hope to goddess Candi knows she is quoting Roy Cohn in Angels in America almost word-for-word.
mai naem
I tell you I am shocked, shocked, that Ken Mehlman has the ghey. And I tell you if I find out that Ed Gillespie has the ghey too I am going to have a heart attack/.
Mary
Mehlman is a charter member of the Israel Lobby. They need him to be out there using the gay thing to bash Muslims, as he already did in his statement. Israel’s gay pride campaign against Islam had not been getting enough traction. Mehlman will be a big help, you’ll see. He can speak on this issue now, he is a good speaker, and he frees up the neocons, who are mostly Republicans, to be able to talk about it a lot more too. It will work out beautifully all around for them, they hope.
fasteddie9318
Can we keep a list of the ex-Bush apparatchiks who now claim to have found sanity but who were basically gutless pieces of shit who didn’t do or say anything when it might actually have meant something?
Mehlman
Tom Ridge (?)
Colin Powell
Scott McClellan
Who am I missing?
Nitahoyo
And the Roy Cohn Life-time Achievement Award for 2010 goes to…..
MikeJ
@Nellcote: Not bundt. Bund. Like the Amerikadeutscher Bund. Not the cake. I think they prefer biscuits.
General Stuck
This could be your next president.
Huckleberry on THE CALL, for “righteousness and justice” to gather in Sacramento for some gold ole Jeebus approved Gay Bashing.
This is your America
Grace Nearing
Just a tad Nurembergian, no?
jrg
At what point do the idiotic mooks that make up the GOP base realize that all of this “family values”/ culture war crap that gets brought up every election year is straight-up bullshit?
It’s truly astounding how stupid those people are.
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
Wow. I remember Mehlman for his ’05 apology to the NAACP for the Republicans’ Southern Strategy. I thought then that he was brave (even though not much has changed about the Repub’s approach to elections since then). Now I realize he’s just full of shit. It boggles the mind to think of the pain he’s caused knowingly (yeah right he just realized he was gay). Since Repubs seem to rail publicly against the groups they secretly belong to or have some affiliation with, I have to wonder how many Southern Republicans (besides Strom Thurmond) have fathered black kids they refuse to acknowledge publicly or know that they have a great-great-great grandma who passed as white. Seriously.
hamletta
@Josh: Exactly.
I have no problem believing GW Bush isn’t a homophobe on a personal level, gets along great with gay people, isn’t grossed out any more than he is by any other plebe.
But he was the head of his party when they embarked on an all-out demonization campaign against LGBT people in a cynical attempt to win votes.
That makes him worse than a homophobe, who’s just ignorant.
George Wallace and Lee Atwater weren’t racists on a personal level, either, but they exploited other people’s racism for votes, money, and power. That’s not ignorance; that’s evil.
New boss same as the old boss
it does mean that growing numbers of gays and lesbians will starting thinking of the GOP as a legitimate alternative to the Democratic party.
Then they are idiots.
Does Obama support their right to gay marriage? NO
Is he getting rid of don’t ask don’t tell? He just talks about doing so.
How is this Democratic Administration any better then the previous one on this issue? They are NOT. So stop fooling your self.
nice strategy
Homophobia is child abuse. Some abusers repeat the cycle. Mehlman was a coward, but at least he knows it. I have mixed feelings about him. I don’t want to hate him, but he was part of mixing up fundamentalists and ideologues into a fascist brew the establishment cannot now control. Who will pop McCarthy’s bubble this time? Not Ken Mehlman. If he could, I’d forgive him. But I still expect him to try.
SlyFox
@New boss same as the old boss:
I’m sure when you both vote Republican, that they will rescind the DADT policy and legalize gay marriage across the country. I’m sure they will also enact a hate crimes bill and take down the AIDS travel an as well. I’m absolutely sure that the Republican Party will celebrate gay contributions to America like they always have. Oh yes, there the same. Whenever they don’t do a policy in the quarter of the first term, vote Republican. They will do it within six days. When Ken Melhman gets elected President, he will enact all of it.
Go back to Aravosis’ blog with that. Its a little late to trudge through bullshit, my boots are still soaked from being at Americablog.
Animals of the Fo'c'sle
Was Ken thinking of men while he was jerking off?
If you fantasize about men while you masturbate, that’s a sign that you’re gay.
Hal
What a bunch of bullshit. The Democratic Party as a whole is light-years ahead of the Republican party on gay rights. Mehlman is despised in the gay community, he was a self hating closet case, and no one is going to follow him anywhere.
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: Seriously? That makes sense, then. The sense of entitlement runs strongly in that one (Avarois. What a shit head). He’s like Sully in that if he weren’t gay, he would still be Republican.
@SlyFox: Exactly this. I hate the ‘there’s no difference between Obama and W. bullshit.’ I don’t agree with Obama’s stance, obviously, but no way in fucking hell would I give the Republican Party the opportunity to rule again. No matter what their personal inclinations, they will enforce the Party Platform across the board.
Ken Mehlman can bite me. I actually think less of him for coming out now after all the shit he and his party did. If he follows up this announcement by actually doing things to help LGBT folk instead of hurting them, then we’ll talk. As it is, it’s a hollow pronunciation that don’t mean shit.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Yes, the neocons will talk about how much they hate kw33rs and never really liked him anyway.
Bet: They start blaming him for every set back the party has suffered, even after he left the RNC.
But that’s the GOP for you. They’re bigots, they rely on the votes of bigots and any attempt at a separation now would be fatal to the party.
Bwahahaha!
I’m going to do the charitable thing and assume the writer was in a coma during BAdmin.
JMC in the ATL
@New boss same as the old boss: This gay man would like to tell you to go kindly fuck yourself with a rusty chainsaw.
Yutsano
@New boss same as the old boss:
Tip for you: neither did any other major candidate for President in 2008. So get over yourself.
Do we have to explain how this all works again? Or would that harsh your poutrage too much? Hell I bet you’ve never tasted a cock in your life outside of your dinner plate.
And Mehlman is a smarmy worm.
MJ
Meh…if he really wants to repent, he’ll tell us the truth about who gave conservative blogger/self-hating mimbo Jeff Gannon (Guckert) a press pass. I may be mistaken, but I anyone has ever explained all of those mysterious “press excursions” to the White House.
For what it is worth, I don’t think Mehlman is the one who procured the passes. I’d wager good money that it was the Turd Blossom….
MJ
@MJ:
Argh! Multi paragraph block quote fail.
Kyle
@Anne Laurie: Other than changing the name of the president, yes. I think that was her intention–to draw the comparison to Roy Cohn.
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“Thing is, dude’s lying about the “recently” shit”
No,iIt’s the power of suggestion. Every time he came on the TV when he was head of the RNC I’d end up shouting at the TV, telling Mehlmann that he was a cocksucker*.
Evidently thousands of people doing likewise had the suggestive effect of making him teh ghey.
I’m just waiting for him to confess to fucking himself with a rusty spoon next.
* We should retire this as a term of abuse, really. A cocksucker performs a useful and pleasurable social function, unlike the Head of the RNC.
Brick Oven Bill
No Big Deal.
I’m still waiting for him to come out and declare he was a Muslim.
Shalimar
@New boss same as the old boss: Obama has been something of a disappointment on GLBT issues. But it’s still a choice between a party where over half of self-identified members support full equal rights and one where over half of self-identified members absolutely despise gays. Democrats and Republicans are not even remotely the same on GLBT issues, and that would have been very obvious if McCain was president now instead of Obama.
Leigh Amane
I feel for the guy and Im glad that he was that close to the presidency and to thinking about policy in the Bush White House. Im sure this is a huge shocker – not the least of which will be to his buddies and colleagues over at KKR.
Rick Alger
He is probably just in love and his new man urged him to come out now so they can live their lives in Freedom now. Blech=phony bologna!