Posted on 11/29/2004 9:28:43 PM PST by eddiebear
It looks as though the liberals, unable to win at the polls, are resorting to these Mary Cheney-esque tactics again. Weren't they supposed to be the party of tolerance?
How about posting text instead of trying to get more hits on somebody's blog?
Sorry.
"Reader John Jensen alerted us to the fact that the Democrats have launched a whispering campaign against Bush-Cheney campaign manager and incoming Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman, alleging that he is a homosexual. Apparently this has been going on for a while, but far off our radar screen. The "evidence" that Mehlman is gay apparently consists of the fact that he is 38 years old and unmarried.
One Bill Berkowitz of "Working for Change" indulges in the usual sleaze:
The chair of Bush's reelection team and newly appointed head of the RNC isn't talking about his sexual orientation, but lots of other folks are
While the GOP's latest wunderkind, Ken Mehlman, is having the time of his life addressing the Republican Governor's conference, sitting down with reporters and editors of several daily newspapers and basking in the afterglow of President Bush's November 2nd victory, the Internet is abuzz with rumors, innuendo, chitchat, and plain old Page-Six-type gossip about his sexual orientation.
While Mehlman has been more than willing -- both before and after the election -- to talk specifically about campaign-related issues, he has made his personal life off limits. By refusing to answer direct questions from reporters about his sexual orientation, he has left open the possibility that he is gay.
Likewise, the New York Blade speculates venomously about Mehlman's personal life:
The sexual orientation of Mehlman, who is 38 and unmarried, has long been the subject of speculation, and he refused to answer earlier this year when asked directly by this publication whether he or other top Bush campaign staffers are gay.
The announcement raises mixed emotions for me. I have known Ken since we were both law students and he worked for me at the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, a libertarian/conservative law review. As young Washington attorneys in the early 90s, we even joined with others to create an organization called Square One that advocated limited government.
There are plenty of reasons for Kens success. He is über-bright, extremely personable, and as dedicated as he is ambitious. Tapped to head the majority political party before he even turns 40, Ken has obviously mastered the art of politics, learning at the feet of the master, his mentor Karl Rove.
But the real disappointment for me comes at the path Ken has taken to find such success. I have not spoken to Ken in a decade, and I have no personal knowledge about his sexual orientation, but whether or not he is gay, he has ridden to success on the coattails of a candidate who betrayed the core principles that we both stood for as young political activists.
Got that? Mehlman has committed the ultimate sin--he isn't a liberal. So it's fair game to smear him in any way possible. Just when you thought the Democrats couldn't get any lower, they surprise you once again."
Are you happy now?!?
You know, I have not been here as long as some of you, but Good Grief, cut some slack! I forget to add the full text, and "lookatme", or whatever, gets added to the topic list.
I'd be happier if you brought me a bag of chips.
Please and thank you.
There are always a few in every crowd..
If the complaint is valid, do your best to correct it, and ignore the rest...
Stressing out over someone else's cross temper is non-productive..
Welcome to FR, and... be a good conservative.. LOL...
Thanks.
I like "attention whore".
Thanks for posting this. I think the Dems are cutting their own wrists with this one.
from that idiot Berkowitz:
..."Does the public need to know, or have the right to know, whether Mehlman is gay?
Over the past few years "there have been lots of questions about Mehlman's sexual orientation," but he refuses to answer any questions about it, long-time activist John Aravosis, author of AMERICAblog, pointed out in a recent posting.
According to Aravosis, there are a number of reasons why Ken Mehlman should answer these questions:
"There have been rumors for years about Mehlman's sexual orientation. Now that he's a very public figure, those rumors gain an importance they didn't have before...
"Mehlman has already said publicly that the gay issue is fair game for politics. If it's fair game, then the same rules apply to him.
"Mehlman has publicly defended the president's anti-gay policies, including the federal constitutional amendment. Were Mehlman gay, he'd be guilty of hypocrisy, and that would justify his outing -- again, were he gay.
"The GOP has made it perfectly clear that gays and lesbians and their relationships are a threat to the fabric of society. As American citizens and voters we have the right to know if Ken Mehlman's so-far-undisclosed relationships are posing such a threat or not. The last thing the GOP should be doing is giving a position of prominence in the party to someone who, for all we know, might have a secret agenda of undermining the family...
"The Republican National Committee is an organization that makes NO BONES about using gay-bashing to help Republican candidates. There is good reason to believe that any RNC chair, were he not 100% straight, would be at pains to effectively run an organization that relies on gay-bashing to get its way. Don't red-state Americans have the right to know if the leader of their party, whomever it turns out to be, actually embraces the party's preferred lifestyle?
"We have been told that part of President Bush's supposed "mandate" in the most recent election was a vindication of his attack on gays. The voting public has a right to know if the next RNC chair plans on subversively undercutting that mandate or actively supporting it...
But...the 180 was never signed. A person running for POTUS doesn't need to disclose his personal information, yet they are making Mehlman the suspect?
Double standard.
This is all just a waste of time. Lets fix it in a hurry:
"Hey Mehlman! You gay?"
"Nope."
"Good enough!"
I expect an exclusive CBS story based on a fax, outing Mr Mehlman. How would one go about documenting gayness? (gaity?) Or for that matter, what documentation would suffice to disprove it?
I'm confident that Mary Mapes can come up with something.
Later,
papa joe
I don't know a Mary Cheney. I'm supposing you meant Mary Mapes?
Mary Cheney is the daughter of VP Cheney. I meant that the slime tactics against her (admitted gay) vs the rumors levied against Mehlmann. I apologize if it was a poor use of the English language.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.