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The Spectacle Blog
I endorse every word of Jim Antle’s wise post below on Ken Mehlman’s homosexuality, etc. I write to correct the record, in answer to some commenters below Jim’s post. Ken Mehlman did a GREAT job in various roles at the RNC. He and Ed Gillespie built the get-out-the-vote effort in 2004 which was the most successful of its kind that Republicans have EVER run. On nuts and bolts, the RNC in those years was often superb and always at least somewhat better than basic competence. (Granted, GOTV in 2004 was SERIOUSLY helped by grassroots organizing completely apart from the RNC, based in opposition, as Jim noted, to gay marriage. But Mehlman and Gillespie knew exactly how to take advantage of those opportunities, and they did so.)
Mehlman alone was in charge at the RNC in 2006. That was like asking someone to take the helm of the Poseidon just before the tidal wave came. Commenters who said he “presided” over a disaster misunderstand what a RNC chair does. Especially when the White House is controlled by Republicans, the RNC chair is completely at the mercy, in terms of POLICY choices and of election themes, of what is emanating from the White House. The RNC’s job is to raise a lot of money, leverage it effectively, and do good nuts-and-bolts work. I think Mehlman did okay at that in 2006 as well. But with Bush imploding, the Hastert Congress embarrassing the Hades out of itself, Iraq not yet surged, and other problems, there was not much else the RNC could do. And I say this as somebody who (including just this morning in a blog post right here) has always been absolutely unafraid to criticize the party committees, which I tend to dislike quite viscerally.
This is not to say that Mehlman is a political genius. But he has been a far-better-than-average operative, and even though he sometimes can spout the party line with too much arrogance and too little straight talk, he has been a gentleman and a man of decency throughout his career.
THAT aside, I do have a problem with this: Why does he act like it follows, as night does day, that just because he now has decided he is homosexual it means his position on homosexual marriage should change? The defense of traditional marriage is not or should not be a matter of one’s own “sexuality,” but of the principles involved. Is he saying his principles suddenly changed? That doesn’t speak well of him. Just because he now is homosexual doesn’t mean that all of society should have its laws and traditions changed. I think he is way off base here, because it seems like he is conflating the personal with the principles. This is a remarkably, and offensively, solipsistic stance/outlook.
That, not his performance at the RNC, and not his personal decision that he is homosexual, is what is open to criticism and is the most disturbing development.
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Siegfried X| 8.26.10 @ 5:37PM
Speaking of RNC chairman, the current chair Michael Steele made some remarks about sexual orientation being something a person was born with, and the overall conversation seemed strongly in favor of homosexual rights. Did he ever walk those remarks back? Was he speaking for the Republican Party?
This is why conservatives are skeptical about the Republican positions on issues. Steele apologized for his Rush Limbaugh insults within 24 hours, but he has made many Democratic-leaning comments on issues which to the best of my knowledge he never apologized for or reversed.
The latest was apparent support for amnesty just a few days ago.
Siegfried X| 8.26.10 @ 5:42PM
And I know the party line on this might be: "Well, he's a rogue but we're stuck with him until early next year."
Which would obviously be self-serving spin by RINOs. There are many things which would never be permissible, and which if an RNC chair said them, he would need to instantly apologize for or lose his job. So if Steele spends his last year in office talking like one of Obama's domestic issues advisors, that is because the RNC wants him to.
Handy| 8.26.10 @ 5:57PM
Queers are queer. Ipso facto.
This is yet one more example of: one step forward, two steps back, for Republicans.
I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative, but we will never get the balance sheet under control with mush heads like Mehlman distracting the conversation with their dalliances.
Gays just can't seem to keep their mouths shut.
He should be banned to "Gay Camp." Preferably, quarantined. And shame on the leadership who should have known better.
Jonathan M.| 8.26.10 @ 8:39PM
A common trait among faggots - can't shut up; everyone always has to listen to their little queen act. It's not just Mehlman: we need to banish them ALL to "Gay Camp," so long as it's the kind of camp you don't come back from alive.
NotALibertarian| 8.26.10 @ 6:01PM
I would point out that Mehlman's supposed powerlessness in the face of a Republican-held White House makes little difference, because Mehlman was so obviously a part of Bush's inner circle. The point isn't that there was nothing Mehlman could have done to change Bush's (domestic) betrayal of conservatism. The point is that he very likely supported it.
Interested Conservative| 8.26.10 @ 6:23PM
Mr. Hillyer - Points well put, but I doubt he's "now" gay. Clearly, he's now out and open and advocating based on it, but I suspect he's been gay as long as he's been.
I don't know anyone who became gay after I knew them, and of my oldest friends and acquaintances, those who are gay have been so from very early on.
I don't know how unclear the science is on this, but I expect it will only get clearer as time passes.
Aside from Mr. Mehlman's political or principle shift, there's next to nothing newsworthy to this story.
Now, about Uncle Nancy, that's a whole other story . . .
Mark Anderson| 8.26.10 @ 9:11PM
Foolish girl, he didn't decide that's he gay now. Whoops, thought you were female, sorry.
Derek Leaberry| 8.27.10 @ 9:27AM
Mehlman is getting his last fleeting moments of fame. The truth about most political functionaries is that once their patrons are out of power, their servile nature does them little good. Mehlman served George W. Bush, Bush is buried politically, disrespected by most Americans, so Mehlman is left to fight for political scraps as a Public Relations sort.
Mehlman is much like Michael Deaver. Deaver was a political servant to Ronald Reagan for many years who left the White House in 1985 to cash in on his contacts. In the first Reagan Administration, Deaver was part of the troika of James Baker, Ed Meese and himself that ran the White House operation. He was one of the most powerful men on Earth for a short time. Years later, about 2005, I came across Deaver at the Food Court at 1825 I Street in Washington, DC. Waiting for his breakfast to be cooked, Deaver was acknowledged by no one at the Food Court. He was no longer a powerful man and had not been one for twenty years. His patron, Ronald Reagan, was long out of office and public life. Michael Deaver was just an anonymous, mild-looking, late middle-aged man with a balding head. He died of cancer two years later, largely forgotten. About the only people who remembered him were those conservatives who hated Deaver for not letting "Reagan be Reagan", a common complaint in the 1980s.
If he is lucky, Mehlman will end up as did Deaver. Somehow, with the lifestyle he has decided to pursue, Mehlman's demise is not likely to end so well as Deaver's.
JP| 8.27.10 @ 1:50PM
I still remember Michael Deaver. I was not 18 when Reagan was elected, and I can still remember the original "old guard" of Meese, Deaver, Baker, as well as William French Smith, Cap Weinberger, and Al Haig. I always was curious about what happened to him. Former Chiefs of Staff have had a rough time these past 40 years (HR Halderman, Hamilton Jordon, Deaver, Sunnunu, etc..). A few like Cheney (Ford's Chief of Staff) went on to better things.
I never thought Mehlman was all that effective. Outside of Karl Rove and Cheney, Bush surrounded himself with incompetents -especially on the domestic side.
David| 8.27.10 @ 11:53PM
Just what about Mehlman's lifestyle, Derek, is likely to lead to an especially unhappy demise?
Is being "an executive vice-president with [a] New York City-based private equity firm" something dangerous?
Boko Fittleworth| 8.27.10 @ 1:11PM
Mehlman "sometimes can spout the party line with too much arrogance and too little straight talk..."
/heh!
Anthony A| 8.27.10 @ 4:51PM
This is a serious problem in the Republican party, closeted gays that all the insiders know about, but that we voters are kept in the dark about. It explains establishment Republicans not backing a heterosexual marriage amendment during Bush's term and the now endless state challanges to traditional marraige we are forced to endure. If Republicans keep getting shaky on traditional values they will not get elected.
Red Phillips | 8.28.10 @ 5:04PM
What? Quin Hillyer has come to the defense of a moderate/RINO? I'm shocked! That has NEVER happened before on this blog.
Wendy| 8.29.10 @ 3:11PM
This is just further proof that the Tea Party and the Republican Party should jettison social conservativism--hard. The idea that you somehow have a right to impose your way of life on "society," and that your rights are being violated if you are not allowed to stop two men from marrying each other, is psycho and evil. Not to mention posters like the one above who wants to kill gays. Sick.
And that is why, if you look closely, you can see that it is probably the one factor that is restraining the Tea Party's otherwise phenomenal success. Despite the passion of the religious right, they are a minority on the right, and their beliefs do not really resonate with most conservatives. Why is Joe Miller in Alaska having such a hard time among CONSERVATIVES beating a pro-Obamacare Republican?
In Washington State, why did Dino Rossi handily beat Clint Didier, the Sarah Palin-backed candidate who was the Tea Party favorite until Rossi entered the race, precipitating an inquiry into Rossi's platform and confusion about whether he was a conservative or RINO. I will tell you why. In the last month of the primary campaign, Rossi, who is a somewhat stupid man and who will probably eventually reveal himself to be a RINO unless he develops a justifed case of Stockholm Syndrome to free market conservatism, had brilliant handlers who packaged him as a hard-core fiscal/free market conservative who shut up about abortion. This left Didier to move into the weak social conservatism niche. By the last week of the primaries, Didier, whom I supported, was inanely grandstanding over abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest. Rossi, no doubt at the behest of his handlers, actually called for repeal of FinReg.
I have to tip my hat to his handlers. They had their finger on the pulse of Americans. It was simply a brilliant move. I have a perverse admiration for those clever devils. I just hope it does not backfire on us all. Let us hope they have the wisdom to whisper in his ear in such a manner that that Stockholm Syndrome comes to fruition, or we will have another Olympia Snowe on our hands in 10 years.
carouser| 8.30.10 @ 10:20AM
In the spirit of good (‘ol boy) form; Mehlman did what any repressed homosexual conservative politician does during his time in the national political spotlight; he bashed the gays. Hmm, looks like Mehlman may continue to have trouble finding a place to stick his pickle.
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