from AMERICAblog: Two of the greats were on cable news last night to talk about Ken Mehlman.
Savage was on Olbermann:
Signorile was on CNN:
One thing Mehlman’s coming out did do is confirm that Rove used Gay Marriage being on the ballot as a tool to get out the Fundamentalist vote – particularly virulent in Ohio.
In my comment to your previous blog about Ken Mehlman, I tried to separate the personal decision to come out from his political activities. Of course, no matter where you are in coming to terms internally with confusion about your sexual orientation, there is no excuse for having contributed to the craven manipulation of anti-gay hatred as a political tool.
Mehlman has taken the first step toward redeeming himself by coming out and now working to defeat Prop8. Now we need for him to take the second step and further expose the cynicism and the political manipulation behind the anti-gay tactics of the Bush campaign — which, by all accounts, didn’t even arise from Bush’s personal values (Mehlman says GW is no bigot, and I believe it); but it came from Karl Rove’s Machiavellian strategies; and Bush allowed it to be done in his name. Mehlman can do a huge service and confirm all of that and expose the GOP for its habit of using hatred toward a group of people to win elections.
But he won’t do that, unless he decides to renounce his allegiance to the GOP..
“But he won’t do that, unless he decides to renounce his allegiance to the GOP.”
Excellent point. I keep forgetting the way that bond is currently formulated. Although “Privately, in off-the-record conversations with this reporter over the years, Mehlman voiced support for civil unions and told of how, in private discussions with senior Republican officials, he beat back efforts to attack same-sex marriage.” It is apparently a sin to break faith publicly. The only prominent Republican to do that I know of was Colin Powell, who was then declared a non-Republican by Cheney and others. I suppose Arlen Specter falls into that category as well.
The article about Mehlman also states, “Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus.” That piece transcends the issue of Gay Marriage. It speaks to the strategy of one party, one voice that has hammered away for the last 20 months all aimed at the midterm elections. As things stand, it looks as if it’s going to work – building a coalition of the usual suspects – fundamentalist Christians, NRA, homophobes, Hawks, etc.
Mehlman could put a dent in that by breaking the spell. There’s nothing that says a Republican can’t tell the truth, disagree with other Republicans – at least nothing before the ascendancy of Karl Rove et al.
There was one Republican who had enough clout that he could state his own personal support for gay marriage way back in 2000 — Dick Cheney. But he could do it and get away with it for two reasons: (1) he had a family excuse — his daughter is lesbian and it could be dismissed as a doting father’s loyalty to his daughter; and (2) he coupled his personal approval by quickly adding that of course he would support the president’s position.
So, combining his personal clout (Dick Cheney could do pretty much anything he wanted) and the “excuse” that he did it for his daughter — and even then he put his personal belief on hold in the interests of president and party.
Nobody else could do it and survive politically in the GOP.