Rogers to Mehlman: Apologize

Blogger Mike Rogers, who had waged an outing campaign against Ken Mehlman, talked with MSNBC host Cenk Uygur about the 2004 Bush campaign manager and former Republican National Committee chairman who finally came out this week.

Uygur, who expressed zero sympathy for Mehlman remaining closeted while leading antigay campaigns, asked Rogers whether he could sympathize with Mehlman.

"Any time that somebody comes to terms with being out of the closet it's a good thing," said Rogers. "I think that what Ken Mehlman has to do is show whether or not he's really sorry. All I ask are three simple things. First, he should spend time with the parents of a child who killed himself after 2004, after that horrible election. I think that he needs to take the fabulous $3 million condo he bought in Manhattan and donate that back to the cause that he worked so hard against. And most important, he needs to put up a heartfelt apology, up on YouTube or somewhere on the Web, where he actually looks at the American people and says, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did and I'm going to work in the future to make it better.' But he has no desire to apologize. He has no regrets, he says. So I think that we really need to hold him more accountable for what he's saying, and then potentially welcome in to the fold of rights activists, but right now it's nothing more than a washing of the reality of his record."

Uygur also spoke with Stephanie Miller, the radio host who recently came out. She declined to judge Mehlman, but she did express skepticism about his continued affiliation with the Republican Party.

"The enemy he's sleeping with in my opinion is not a man," she said. "It's the Republican Party, because this is not a party that's interested in gay rights at all."

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