Former Bush campaign manager flips on gay marriage

The news that former Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman is now openly gay and will raise funds and strategize for the campaign to legalize gay marriage is a stunning reversal. During Mehlman's tenure as head of the Republican National Committee and as an adviser to the 2004 Bush campaign, Mehlman helped spearhead some of the most aggressively anti-gay initiatives in American politics.

Though his sexuality was something of an open secret in Washington circles, in his public career Mehlman worked on numerous high-profile anti-gay efforts, beginning with the proposed 2004 constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage.

Back in 2004, gay marriage was still a very effective wedge issue that the Republican Party used to generate high voter turnout in a tough election year, despite Vice President Dick Cheney's public disagreement with the strategy.

Bush adviser Karl Rove's "active strategy was to divide and conquer by microtargeting religious conservatives...."

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