Ken Mehlman talks to Thomas Roberts of MSNBC News about the Prop 8 hearing, marriage equality, and what he has done to help it.
Partial Transcript:
Thomas Roberts: And our special guest at the top of the hour, former RNC chairman, Ken Mehlman, Richard Socarides, former president of Equality Matters, and openly gay former congressman of Rhode Island, David Cicilline. Gentleman it’s great to have you here, but I wanna start with our exclusive interview with Ken Mehlman, former RNC chairman and former campaign manager for President George W. Bush’s 04 campaign, and Ken publically you came out in 2010.
Ken Mehlman: I did.
Thomas Roberts: And Ken it’s been written that you are the highest profile gay Republican in American history. It’s crossed the wires from Reuters saying that the US Supreme court that was hearing the oral arguments right now, I see that the conservative justices are troubled by the Obama Administration’s refusal to defend the marriage law. As a lawyer, how do you interpret what’s coming out of the court right now?
Ken Mehlman: Well I was actually in the hearings yesterday, in the oral argument, I’m on the board of AFER, which is the organization that brought the Proposition 8 lawsuit with Ted Olsen and David Boies. And what I saw yesterday were justices that were taking a very serious issue very seriously. They were asking a lot of very tough questions to all three of the council that were appearing before them. They recognized the enormity of what they are dealing with. What was interesting to me though was that you heard from all sides two things that I think are really important. One was how important the issue of marriage is, how central it is to an individual, as a person to their freedom, to their essence. As Ted Olsen said it is the single most important relationship you have. And the second thing was the fundamental nature of that right, which in my judgment and in our judgment, the constitution ought to protect. So a lot of discussion, a lot of issues clearly the court was wrestling with it, as they should, it’s a very important issue.
Thomas Roberts: As you bring up AFER, and you’ve also been able to raise millions of dollars in support for marriage equality initiatives across the country. You helped this amicus brief right here; it’s now signed as I understand it by 135 different Republicans. They signed on in favor of marriage equality.
Ken Mehlman: Correct
Thomas Roberts: Do you think these efforts are now going to pay off as we’re hearing now there is hesitation from all angles about whether or not any of these issues should be coming before the Supreme Court as it were. Hesitation from even Kennedy himself, who is considered to be the most pivotal swing vote.
Ken Mehlman: Well look I think anybody who thinks you can watch an oral argument and then predict what their court is going to do should be disabused of that, certainly the decision in the healthcare case showed that was a foolhardy to try and...
