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t has come to light that the 12 Republican senators who threw their support behind the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act” (RMA) were swayed by cash and political clout wielded by a group of prominent donors, several of whom identify as “gay.” At least ten GOP senators were needed to join Senate Democrats to reach the required 60-vote threshold for passage of the bill, which mandates that all 50 states must recognize same-sex “marriages,” even in the event that the Supreme Court overturns its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. The New York Times reported: Behind the scenes, a group of...

Signers include former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sens. Susan Collins and Mark Kirk and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie BakerMore than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday. The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide. In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage...

On a conference call with Gov. Chris Christie’s most loyal donors a few nights ago, his brother, Todd, pressed for last-minute cash to pay for the governor’s inauguration, a daylong fete ending on Ellis Island. Then the governor himself came on the line, trying to convince his listeners that he was moving beyond the George Washington Bridge scandal and getting back to work, according to two participants. The next day, state investigators sent 20 subpoenas to his inner circle and the inquiry widened. This was supposed to be a season of triumph and celebration for the governor of New Jersey...

Almost no elected Republicans support giving gays the right to marry. The party’s influential social-conservative wing sees “traditional marriage” as a defining issue. And while most major Democrats are rushing to embrace same-sex marriage, none of the most prominent potential Republican presidential candidates have taken that step.But a powerful group of Republican donors, who see the GOP’s staunch opposition to gay rights as a major problem, is trying to push the party toward a more welcoming middle ground — where candidates who oppose marriage rights can do so without seeming hateful.The behind-the-scenes effort is being led largely by GOP mega-donor...

As the Supreme Court considers overturning California’s ban on same-sex marriage, gay people await a ruling that could change their lives. But the case has already transformed one gay man: Ken Mehlman, the once-closeted Republican operative who orchestrated President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election on a platform that included opposition to same-sex marriage. Now Mr. Mehlman, a private equity executive in Manhattan, is waging what could be his final campaign: to convince fellow Republicans that gay marriage is consistent with conservative values and good for their party. His about-face, sparked in part by the lawyer who filed the California lawsuit,...

In some ways, today's Supreme Court arguments over California's proposition 8 were overshadowed by the decision of several Democratic senators from red or purple states to openly and active support marriage equality. Actually, even that pales in comparison to Richard Land, the key Southern Baptist political evangelist, who just said, basically, "nevermind," when it comes to the next generation of evangelicals being uncomfortable about gay rights. (To be sure, he still opposes gay rights, still thinks that gay marriage will lead to polygamy, and believes that anti-gay leaders are being ostracized from polite society.) On that last part, he's kind...

Gay Marriage Effort Attracts a Novel Group of Donors ADAM NAGOURNEY and BROOKS BARNES March 23, 2012 LOS ANGELES — On a warm Friday afternoon three years ago, Rob Reiner, the director, arrived for lunch at the Beverly Hills estate of David Geffen, the entertainment mogul. Mr. Reiner and his political adviser, Chad H. Griffin, had spent six months drafting an ambitious legal campaign aimed at persuading the United States Supreme Court to establish a constitutional right of same-sex marriage. Mr. Reiner, joined by Mr. Griffin and Mr. Reiner’s wife, Michele, told Mr. Geffen they would need $3 million to...

-snip- Although Fehrnstrom is one of Romney’s longest-serving aides, he, like his boss, has no roots in the conservative movement. Fehrnstrom started out as a reporter covering alderman meetings in Boston and lives in liberal Brookline, Mass. His work as a GOP operative has been confined to New England — a region, as he often notes, that’s “pretty rocky terrain for Republicans.” To some influential conservatives, Fehrnstrom is an enigma. It’s not that conservatives don’t trust him. It’s that some don’t even know him. “I’ve never heard of him. I’ve been going to conservative meetings since I was knee-high to...

Ron Paul revels in the fact that he is the presidential candidate of America's small donors, receiving more contributions under $200 than any other Republican seeking the White House in 2012. But, like every other GOP presidential contender, he also has a mega-millionaire "sugar daddy" helping to fund a super PAC that is promoting Paul's candidacy. Yet while Newt Gingrich underwriter Sheldon Adelson and Rick Santorum super-supporter Foster Friess have shared the campaign stage - and the national political spotlight - with their candidates, Paul's benefactor, San Francisco entrepreneur Peter Thiel, has never met the Texas congressman he's aiding.

On Friday night, joyful men and women massed at the Stonewall Inn, Manhattan's gay landmark, to cheer the New York legislature's vote to allow gay marriage. In their midst was a man many in the gay community had once cursed, as a champion of policies hostile to their cause. But on this night, he blended in, comfortable with the company—and, unbeknownst to many of the revelers, a key force behind their victory. ... On June 6, two weeks before the legislative session was officially set to end, Mehlman was back in the state capitol to drive his argument home. He...

When Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) agreed to attend a fundraising dinner in Washington for the Log Cabin Republicans, many social conservatives were outraged. The group has long urged the GOP to be more accepting of gay rights, and some Republicans worried that the appearance by Cornyn, a party leader in Congress, would further legitimize its views. The senator not only attended the Log Cabin event at the Capitol Hill Club last Wednesday, he also accepted an award from the group, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to do so. After his speech, though, the group's president, R. Clarke Cooper, privately told Cornyn...

Suddenly, it's becoming less of a stigma for bigwigs to associate with gays in the Republican Party. Not only has former RNC chairman Ken Mehlman's 9/22 fundraiser for gay marriage rights attracted numerous high-octane Republican donors and activists, but Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Rep. Pete Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee will help the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group, raise money for its political action committee. A glossy pamphlet advertising the Log Cabin Republicans' national dinner at the Capitol Hill Club highlights an hour-long cocktail gathering with...

When former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman publicly acknowledged his homosexuality last week, the revelation was news because of his leadership role in a political party not known for its affirmation of gay-rights issues. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, who broke the story, called Mehlman the "most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay." Aside from chairing the RNC, Mehlman also managed the successful 2004 reelection campaign of President George W. Bush, which used the issue of state bans on same-sex marriage to draw conservative voters to the polls. As a prominent member of the GOP, Mehlman has contributed...

Ken Mehlman, George W. Bush's 2004 election campaign manager and a former Republican Party Chairman, has just revealed he is gay, according to Newsweek and a variety of other media outlets. His disclosure has angered some gay and lesbian same-sex marriage activists, upset by his tacit support and silence during the "values" political drive of 2004, when Republican strategists like Karl Rove pushed same-sex marriage bans across 13 states that year, as USA Today reported. Others are hailing his recent self-outing as being potentially helpful to the efforts to end Proposition 8 and the court case being driven, in part,...

Ken Mehlman is gay? Most right-leaning political junkies probably responded by asking, ‘Who is Ken Mehlman?’ or ‘Yeah, but who cares?’ Conservative bloggers either ignored the topic or pointed out that conservatives aren’t necessarily surprised or outraged by the news. “I had absolutely no idea Ken Mehlman was gay, or existed,” wrote the Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher in response to the New York Times piece that marveled at the “muted reaction” of Republicans to the announcement. The former RNC chairman and President Bush’s 2004 campaign manager announced that he was gay to the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, and also announced his...

Editors' note: This piece is co-authored by Ken Klukowski.Same-sex marriage is back as a front-burner issue in American politics. On August 4, a federal judge in San Francisco held that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, striking down part of the California Constitution defining marriage as one man and one woman. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ordered an expedited schedule to consider this case, with arguments to be held in December. Now former RNC chairman and 2004 Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman came out this week, announcing he’s homosexual, and pushing the Republican...

There were other things I wanted to write about this evening, but now I feel like I’m obligated to write a society-page feature because the Drama Queen (Ken Mehlman) decided to make her debut at the cotillion. (...) Excuse my derision, and denounce me as suffering from “homophobia” — Can I get an SSI disability check for that? Would Medicaid pay for treatment? — if that satisfies your craving for a sense of moral superiority. You’re not going to guilt-trip me into pulling punches. I’m heaping the most vicious ridicule I can on this twerp for a reason: To discourage...

*excerpt* As a matter of public policy, the issues on which Ken Mehlman exerted his retrograde influence within the GOP are not about his personal behavior. They are about the truth or falsity of the great principles, the self-evident truths, from which the liberty of the American people derives. If there is no natural right, no natural family, no ways of God reflected in the nature of mankind, then there are no unalienable rights; no principle of justice that requires their security; no authoritative basis for the rightness of government based on consent; no claim to self-government, of, by and...

So former RNC chair and Bush campaign leader Ken Mehlman has come out of a closet that apparently had a glass door because it seems to have been the most open secret ever. Now he's apparently expected to become some kind of poster boy for why the GOP should finally sign on to gay marriage. Which is an argument I'd much rather have than talking about ObamaCare, or our impending national bankruptcy, or anything consequential really. Why save the country when you can obsess a little more about sex? Here's a compromise...he can be chief decoration officer for the...

Same-sex marriage is back as a front-burner issue in American politics. First, on August 4, a federal judge in San Francisco held that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, striking down part of the California Constitution defining marriage as one man and one woman. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ordered an expedited schedule to consider this case, with arguments to be held in December. Second, former RNC chairman and 2004 Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman came out this week, announcing he’s homosexual, and pushing the Republican Party to support the homosexual-rights agenda. Republicans...