Ken Mehlman, the openly gay manager of George W. Bush's 2004 re-election effort, says he regrets not doing more to push back on that campaign's efforts against same-sex marriage.
Mehlman, who went on to become Republican National Committee chairman after working on the Bush campaign, came out in 2010 -- well after leaving politics for a private equity firm in New York City. He is now involved in marriage equality efforts across the country, including the bid to overturn Proposition 8 in California.
Here's what Mehlman said to Salon's Thomas Schaller in an interview:
At a personal level, I wish I had spoken out against the effort. As I've been involved in the fight for marriage equality, one of the things I've learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved. I apologize to them and tell them I am sorry. While there have been recent victories, this could still be a long struggle in which there will be setbacks, and I'll do my part to be helpful.The political environment was very different in 2004 on the issue of gay marriage. Congress had tried to pass legislation to ban same-sex marriage and 11 states that year passed such legislation. Mehlman and Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, had said repeatedly in interviews that Bush would use his second term to push for a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.
Yesterday, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, signed legislation that would make his state the eighth to legalize gay marriage. That measure is expected to take effect in 2013.
Reported by usatoday.com
