Mike Rogers of Blogactive, the blogger featured in Outrage, Kirby Dick's documentary which exposed closeted hypocritical politicians, reports that former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman is coming out of the closet:
"Ken Mehlman, the former Chairman of the Republican National Committee is set to come out of the closet in a column by Atlantic writer Marc Ambinder Friday morning or early next week. This will be on the heels of him being included in fundraising letter supporting marriage equality."
Mehlman has previously denied being gay. After the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, he said, "I’m not gay. But those stories did a number on my dating life for six months"
You may recall a segment of Larry King Live from back in November 2006 in which Bill Maher outed Mehlman. CNN edited the west coast feed and cut out the comments in which Maher outed Mehlman, also deleting the uncut version from YouTube.
The New York Times reported on the editing, but also wouldn't name Mehlman, saying that Maher "[speculated about some politicians’ sex lives."
At the time, a spokesman for Larry King Live told the paper, "When someone says something potentially defamatory that we don’t expect them to say live on the air, we typically won’t be liable for it. However, if we continue to rebroadcast it, without any reporting of our own or any comment from the subject of the accusation, we could be legally responsible for what that guest said."
Continued, AFTER THE JUMP…
Rogers wants contrition, apology, and action:
So, how can Ken Mehlman redeem himself? I want to hear from Ken that he is sorry for being the architect of the 2004 Bush reelection campaign. 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. 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. I want to hear him apologize for every one of those, too.
And then there is one other little thing. You see, while you and I had the horrible feelings of being treated so poorly by our President, while teens were receiving the messaging 'gay is bad' giving them 'permission' to gay bash, while our rights were being stripped state by state, Ken was out there laughing all the way to the bank. So, if Ken is really sorry, and he very well may be, then all he needs to do is sell his condo and donate the funds to the causes he worked against so hard for all those years. He's done a lot of damage to a lot of organizations, while making a lot of moeny. A LOT of money. It's time to put his money where his mouth is. Ken Mehlman is sitting in a ,770,000.00 (that's .77 million) condo in Chelsea while we have lost our right to marry in almost 40 states.
THEN, and only then, should Mehlman be welcomed into our community.
(image kat ruddy on flickr)
