The news that former Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign manager and RNC Chair Ken Mehlman is gay and outed himself is about the biggest news with the biggest consequences this summer, next to the Prop 8 decision and stay.
Reading the Ambinder story, which was supposed to run Friday until Mike Rogers’ piece forced The Atlantic to run it early, leaves more questions than answers.
Like these:
In the second sentence of “Bush Campaign Chief and Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman: I’m Gay,” the Atlantic piece and Mehlman’s “official” outing, Marc Ambinder writes, “Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview.”
Really? And yet, further into the piece, Mehlman contradicts himself by saying, “The process of not being able to say who I am in public life was very difficult.” And then there’s this: “It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life.”
So, Mehlman told Ambinder that he “arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently,” but that “It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life?”
Blogger Pam Spaulding took part in a “question time” online Q&A with Ambinder this afternoon. In his response to her, he writes, “[Melhman] told me that he regrets the fact that he wasn’t ready to admit to anyone that he was a supporter of gay rights.”
That’s a bit on par with saying you’re not ready to tell people you’re pro-choice. Or that you support people who like chocolate. Take your pick. (It also further debunks the “Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently” bit. “Oh, officer, I had no idea I was speeding…”)
Ambinder calls Mehlman, “the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay.”
That may be. I’d like to add that I think Mehlman’s also pretty good at lying. Rogers says, “Ken Mehlman is not doing what is right, he is doing what benefits Ken Mehlman.”
Mehlman is gay. Great! Welcome to the club. But he’s got a hell of a lot of work to do to make up for the hell he caused countless millions of LGBT Americans and their friends and families.
And a donation to AFER is a drop in the karma bucket.