Ken Mehlman, the chair of the Republican National Committee, has finally been asked directly "the question": Are you gay?

By Chris Crain | ccrain@window-media.com

Eric Resnick of the Gay People's Chronicle reports in this week's edition that he cornered Mehlman in Akron, Ohio, on March 19 after he spoke to the Summit County Republican Party. After years of rumor and dodging the question, Mehlman's response: "[You] have asked a question people shouldn't have to answer." Mehlman further claimed that his sexual orientation, gay or straight, "changes nothing" about his leadership of the GOP.

As we reported previously, Mehlman similarly dodged the question last year when he was managing George W. Bush's re-election campaign and was asked by the Blade if any top campaign staffers are gay. Things heated up for Mehlman when GQ reported in its current edition that Steve Schmidt, who works with Mehlman at the RNC, flatly denied the rumor: "Ken Mehlman is not gay," Schmidt told ABC News' Jake Tapper, who penned the GQ article.

By refusing to answer the question, of course, Mehlman only adds fuel to the fire. History may record, at some point, its first genuinely closeted heterosexual, but they are clearly few and far between.

The Chronicle reports that Mehlman peppered his remarks to the Summit County GOP, which is ironically headed up by a married (to a woman) man outed by a local publication, with his usual veiled attacks on gay marriage and abortion rights. He also urged the party to expand its reach to include Latinos and African Americans. Asked after his speech by the Chronicle whether the GOP should widen its tent and embrace gay rights to attract lesbians and gay men, Mehlman again dodged. "The Republican Party is based on ideas. Anyone who shares those ideas is welcome."

In other Mehlman news, RawStory.com has published a "response" by editor John Byrne to my blog posting that took issue with "anonymous sources" who claim I "spiked" a Blade story that would out Mehlman. Byrne now claims that RawStory did not report, and does not believe, that I "spiked" the story, even though ConspiracyPlanet.com published the RawStory piece with a headline saying exactly that. Instead, I "thwarted" or "stifled" the story by hiding information from my own reporters. I'll leave the difference to semanticists, but the claim is rubbish however it is worded.

More interestingly, Byrne trots out as proof of a pattern in this regard that I declined an offer to investigate alleged audiotapes of a profile recorded by Congressman Ed Schrock on a phone sex line. RawStory suggests that I hid this offer from the Blade staff, as well. His only source for that claim is a former staffer who he knows was not even working at the Blade the time the offer was made. The irony here is that Byrne only knows that the Blade was offered the Schrock tapes because I told him, a fact he conveniently fails to report. Does he think I keep secrets from my staff and then blab to RawStory.com? The same goes for my own personal history with Ken Mehlman. RawStory reported the ties as if they were some secret revelations to be exposed, never informing readers that I wrote a very public editorial with the exact same information almost five months earlier.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 at 9:57 AM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.