This is a little like if Lee Atwater was black and repented before he got the death-bed blues:
“At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort,” he (Ken Mehlman) says. “As I’ve been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I’ll do my part to be helpful.”
Both sides do it of course, remember all the high-level Democratic operatives who later apologized for their tactics?
Arclite
I’m glad Ken’s coming around. I can at least admire Atwater for repenting once staring death in the face. It’s a shame Brietbart didn’t have the same opportunity.
Zifnab
Well, I guess it’s ok so long as the guy feels like a dick about it years later.
/not
Splitting Image
Like George Wallace?
DougJarvus Green-Ellis
@Splitting Image:
Ha!
penpen
DougJ there was that dude from Louisiana or something, who switched from D to R recently, claiming he had SEEN VOTER FRAUD WITH HIS OWN EYES
/pedant
Of course he cited nor offered no evidence, making the whole thing come off like a wingnut welfare fishing expedition.
MikeJ
That’s the graf that tells you what you need to know. I have a hard time believing any apologies are sincere when they’re just trying to pick up a few more votes.
Poopyman
Hang on here. Above the paragraph you quote is this one:
Which to my reading seems like he’s still casting it as an election issue rather than a personal one. I understand he’s now fighting for marriage equality, but it seems like it could just as well be pre-positioning himself for the inevitable victory, rather than a true Atwateresque epiphany.
While I’m glad he’s fighting on the “right” side, color me sceptical that he’s had a real personal conversion on the matter.
ETA @ MikeJ: Heh!
dmbeaster
Mehlman does not merit being given any slack. I can understand someone not closely involved with politics making his mistake. But he was an operative of the highest order — purposefully serving the agenda despite the hypocrisy of it.
He is like the mafia hit man lamenting his murders. Yeah, its nice that he has found a place in his heart to stop being a complete a$$hole, but it is not mitigation for his misconduct.
If he wants to earn back some respect, do what David Brock has done. Expose the corruption that you served, and then go bat for the good guys for a while.
Stav
Well, actually Bob Shrum should apologize for his tactics. But that’s another story.
Satanicpanic
@Poopyman: a Romneyesque epiphany, if you will
beergoggles
Might want to add to the OP that Melhman is headlining a fundraiser for Boehner – the guy that’s cutting funding from everything in order to fund the defense of DOMA in the federal courts.
Some kapos just can’t help themselves..
trollhattan
Ted Olson’s actually doing something useful to counteract some of the damage done by that administration, not simply penning public apologies. Perhaps other repentent Bushies can follow his lead.
Boots Day
My sense is that Atwater always understood that what he was doing was sleazy and dishonest. When he was dying, he realized that he would be remembered throughout American political history as a sleazy and dishonest figure, and thought he ought to try to fix that.
I don’t suspect for a second that these guys are unaware of how unethical and immoral they are; it’s just that it’s more important, in the moment, to win some elections. Do you think Karl Rove has no idea that it might not be the most honorable thing in the world to accuse your political opponent of being a pedophile?
Splitting Image
True enough. When marriage equality was passed in Canada, I didn’t think Jean Chretien (who had previously voted for the Canadian equivalent of DOMA) did any soul-searching more complicated than sticking his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. But I remember feeling more heartened at the time at the thought that the country’s savviest politician felt the lay of the land was changing than I would have if I had thought that he had sincerely changed his mind.
I actually felt the same thing when Jon Huntsman came out in support of civil unions in Utah. I have no idea what his personal feelings were on the matter, but if he was thinking that gay-bashing is on its way to being an electoral loser even in Utah, then the end of the fight is surely in sight.
Bubblegum Tate
@Poopyman:
I’d bet that he hasn’t had a real personal conversion on the matter. I’ve given up on the idea that conservatives can be made to give up their bigotry, but that being the case, I’ll settle for them not being able to codify their bigotry as law.
shortstop
@MikeJ: Just so. If discriminating against his own were still politically viable, Mehlman would still be leading the charge.
penpen
@Boots Day: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Tolerance in the face of tyranny is no virtue.”
With that as your guiding principle you can engage in all sorts of dirty tricks with a clean conscience, I think liberals generally don’t realize this about the conservative mindset.
Suffern ACE
@trollhattan: Mehlmen did spend time in the New York fight attempting to twist arms to get a few Republican lawmakers to pass that marriage bill last summer. And I believe he still has enough fundraising clout to get the statehouse reps campaign contributions to make up for any losses that they might incur if they switched sides. So yeah, he is doing something.
mistermix
Bob Shrum should be apologizing, but he isn’t. Mehlman is even a better hypocrite than Shrum.
The Ancient Randonneur
Oh please! When liberals apologize for being so mean in the comment sections of all those awful blogs celebrating the death of convicted felon James O’Keefe’s benefactor THEN WE CAN TALK! Until then. Forget. It.
MTiffany
I’m sure his apology means a great deal to all the LGBT youth that have killed themselves as the direct result of the anti-gay sentiment that human cancer helped perpetuate. Mr. Mehlman, I sincerely wish you a slow death, but a quick ride to hell.
staci
Posted at Bob Cesca’s place, and it couldn’t be more appropriate for people like Andrew Breitbart, et al.
Tonal Crow
@dmbeaster:
Are you kidding me? Brooks is just engaging in a higher-order form of propaganda by polishing his “reasonableness” credentials. He’ll be back to puffing the wingers within a fortnight, and certainly by the time the GOP chooses its nominee.
Steve
It’s easy to have regrets once the issue is no longer a slam-bang political winner. Marriage equality needs all the friends it can get, but still, I think Mehlman will take this one to his grave.
Suffern ACE
@Tonal Crow: Brock of Media Matters and “Blinded by the Right” fame, not Brooks of Bobo fame.
C.S.
Well, that’s the key, isn’t it? Those damned Democrats are worse, clearly, because they never apologize.*
*This statement has been rated “True” by PolitiFact.
Tonal Crow
@Suffern ACE:
Ah yes, my bad. I’ve got Bobo on the brain today. I’ll let my original post stand as a warning against reading too quickly.
trollhattan
@Suffern ACE:
Did not know that. I also keep mixing up his name and melamine and auto-associate him with tainted infant formula, so there’s that.
Midnight Marauder
@Arclite:
The real shame is that Andrew Breitbart had an opportunity to repent every day of his life before he died, and he consciously chose not to do so.
taylormattd
Thank you Doug.
Somebody made this exact comparison over at Daily Kos today in a softball diary that kind of kissed Mehlman’s ass.
Someone else pointed out that even as he apologizes, he is chairing a fundraiser for John Fucking Boehnor.
(I’ll also note that the valentine to Mehlman was penned by a front pager who can almost never find a single thing kind to say about Obama)
I seriously hate how my fellow gays in the “left” blogosphere are such fucking PUMAs or something.