Ken Mehlman, Republican National Committee chairman during the Bush administration, has come out as gay. He’s now working as an attorney in a private equity firm. He’s no longer in a place where telling the truth could have rocked the establishment and slowed down the momentum of the anti-gay activists.

Back when he had some power in Washington, when he was close to the President and his advisers, he went along with the cynical decision to create an ‘enemy’ to rev up the base…

Mehlman said President Bush “is no homophobe” but acknowledged that the Bush administration used antigay initiatives for political gain. In private conversations with senior Republicans, he said, he fought back against attempts to demonize same-sex marriage.

Well, we all know how much good that did. What I’d like to see is more of the ‘family values’ crowd coming out as political players who will slander innocent people whose only crime is being in the minority–and do it for political gain.

Whatever good is left in the Republican party, conscienceless opportunists like Ken Mehlman helped diminish it. His ‘homosexual agenda’ was to stay undercover when being himself would have hurt his career. His ‘family values’ led him to hang out with the valuable families while others advocated for rights like marriage and adoption as outsiders holding signs at protests.

In related news, the current chairman of the Republican National Committee has come out with an admission that his party uses race to energize the base. Follow this link to Bob Cesca’s shocking revelations.

My first president was Kennedy, and I’ve heard a lot of things said. But I’ve never before heard claims that a president was not an American, not a Christian. The message is not ‘one of us’, and people believe it first and look for proof second.

It’ used to be said that ‘gay is the new black’. Now it seems that brown is, and ‘illegals’ and Muslims are playing the role of national scapegoat. Playing the divisive card may be a winner in the short term, but it hurts our country to divide our people.

Some of my best friends are Republicans, they are decent people. A two-party system where both parties offer a real choice is good for our country. Republicans who know better should speak up, and not wait until they are safely away from the consequences. It won’t put them on the right side of history to say that they knew all along they were using bigotry for political gain.