Right and Left Alike Pile on Out Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman

He headed the Republican National Committee for two years, from 2005-2007, when the GOP was targeting GLBT Americans with more vigor than usual. Her served as George W. Bush's campaign manager in the 2004 election cycle. He came out of the closet as gay on Aug. 25 in an interview with The Atlantic, saying that he will support efforts to restore marriage rights for gay and lesbian families in California. And now both the left and the right are talking about Ken Mehlman--some warmly, some with harsh words.

"The reason I wish that I had been in a different place then, as I am now, is I know the personal benefit of being comfortable with, and at peace with, an important part of your life," Mehlman told the Huffington Post the same day he made his announcement. "Until you get there, it's much harder. I'm very glad to be there."

In his remarks to the Huffington Post, Mehlman echoed the observations made elsewhere about the way the Republican party handles gays in the wake of the economic meltdown, saying that the GOP is less focused on social issues and "much more about the size and scope of the government--spending, deficits, and taxes." Those are the core issues promoted by gay conservatives, such as those who belong to GoProud, a group that made headlines earlier this year when it sponsored the 2010 CPAC, an annual convention of conservative organizations.

At the same time, Mehlman drew on the GOP's "big tent" rhetoric, telling the Huffington Post, "I think the Republican Party is a diverse party with lots of different views, and I think it's a mistake to presume that people who disagree with what I think is the right answer--which is freedom to marry--are inherently motivated by divisive instincts."

But the politics of division have already become a focal point in the response to Mehlman's admission.

"We hope the fact that Ken Mehlman has reached this level of honesty will now encourage other political leaders to reject divisive anti-gay campaign tactics which, as Mr. Mehlman now admits, are purely cynical attempts to manipulate the American public," said Chuck Wolfe, the head of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political organization that supports GLBT candidates in races around the nation.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will be angry that he came out when he did and after the things that he did, and he probably regrets that more than most people, but I think that having him as part of the team moving forward will only help all of us in this fight," said Winnie Stachelberg, a leader of the Center for American Progress.

Others were more pointed in their pro-active attempts to stave off anger from the GLBT community toward Mehlman. Steve Elmendorf, a gay Democratic strategist, stated bluntly that, "until we get 51 percent of the American public supporting us on these issues, it's really important that we welcome people who want to come help us."

Chad Griffin, who co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights--the organization that is bankrolling the federal suit challenging California's anti-gay ballot amendment Proposition 8--sounded a similar note, reported Advocate.com on Aug. 25. "I have spent no time thinking about where Ken was four-to-five-to-six years ago. I'm just thankful that he's with us today," said Griffin. "He is one of the most brilliant political strategists from the Republican side of the aisle, and he is also a master fundraiser and brings contacts and relationships to bear that are comparable to almost no one."

It's Mehlman's ability as a fundraiser that Griffin is counting on: Mehlman was prompted to come out by an upcoming AFER event at which Mehlman will be a featured attraction, media sources said. Mehlman also told the Atlantic that he'd finally gotten "comfortable" about being gay, and he wanted to throw his weight behind helping to secure family parity, despite having once embraced the GOP's anti-gay party line and stating, "Republicans are for government that stands on the side of marriage, and on the side of strong families."

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman told The Atlantic. "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."

The Atlantic article noted that, "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," but went on to recall that "Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus."

Even so, Mehlman's complicity with the GOP's anti-gay strategies rub some the wrong way, especially now that he has come out. Noted The Atlantic, "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."

Dodges, Deflections, and the "Roy Cohn Award"

At blogACTIVE.com, blogger Michael Rogers awarded Mehlman with a "Roy Cohn Award," named after a closeted--and virulently anti-gay--lawyer who served as Sen. Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel. Saying that Mehlman had been "one of the nation's worst closeted individuals," Rogers claimed that it was due to pressure he had exerted on Atlantic reporter Mark Ambinder that the story broke. "Now maybe the gay glitterati will not have time to line up behind this scum," Rogers wrote.

"Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchestrated his coming out is, our community should hold him accountable for his past," Rogers continued, before going on to lay out the groundwork for Mehlman's "redemption."

"I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for his role in developing strategy that resulted in George W. Bush threatening to veto ENDA or any bill containing hate crimes laws," wrote Rogers. "I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for the pressing of two Federal Marriage Amendments as political tools. I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for developing the 72-hour strategy, using homophobic churches to become political arms of the GOP before Election Day. And those state marriage amendments," added Rogers. "I want to hear him apologize for every one of those, too."

Rogers recalled how Mehlman--who has never been married--had denied rumors that he was gay, going so far as to state that not only was not gay, but rumors that he was had hindered his "dating life."

A March 25, 2005, Gay People's Chronicle article reported that Mehlman, when asked directly about his sexuality, told a reporter that he had "asked a question people shouldn't have to answer."

The article also quoted equality advocate John Arovosis as saying that such inquiries were hardly outside of bounds, because "Mehlman has already said publicly that the gay issue is fair game for politics. If it is fair game, then the same rules apply to him."

Leftward blog Kmareka.com went after Mehlman for his announcement, with an Aug. 25 posting saying, "Whatever good is left in the Republican party, conscienceless opportunists like Ken Mehlman helped diminish it." Added the posting, "His 'homosexual agenda' was to stay undercover when being himself would have hurt his career. His 'family values' led him to hang out with the valuable families while others advocated for rights like marriage and adoption as outsiders holding signs at protests." Though he's come out now, the posting said, "He's no longer in a place where telling the truth could have rocked the establishment and slowed down the momentum of the anti-gay activists."

Meantime, rightward blog First Things condemned Mehlman in an Aug. 25 posting for "undermining" the GOP's positions on such matters as family parity, noting that Mehlman claimed to have opposed the party's anti-gay strategies in private. "So while social conservatives were giving money to the RNC to support the cause of traditional marriage, the chairman was working in secret to undermine the effort." Added the posting, "[W]hy do we continue to financially support institutions that actively work to undermine our values? How long will we let the minority within the conservative movement treat the majority like chumps before we say, 'No more'?"

Reaction from the rightward fringe was even more pronounced. At conservative chat site FreeRepublic.com, where gay news is frequently posted and commented on, Mehlman was instantly dismissed as a "RINO" ("Republican in Name Only") and a closet "liberal." Blogger Oliver Willis summed up FreeRepublic responses in am Aug. 25 posting that collected a range of commentary, from the wittily caustic (""Bless his heart he has brought things to a head" and ""Keep it to yourself Ken, you have for 43 years") to the scatologically graphic (""Let me get this straight: a man who finds erotic fascination with the hairy fecal elimination canals of other men WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE RNC? And those idiots wonder why we are losing faith in their leadership?").

Meantime, at gay blog JoeMyGod, blogger Joe Jervis put in his own two cents, recalling that Mehlman had endorsed then-Sen. Rick Santorum in 2003, following Santorum's infamous comparison of marriage equality to "man on dog" sex, posting a number of "flashback" items recounting Mehlman's anti-gay activities, and announcing news of Mehlman's public disclosure with the headline, "Repulsive Anti-Gay Quisling Homophobic Scumbag Asshat Closeted Former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman Has Come Out."