OUTED! McCain Chief Of Staff Mark Buse

In what they are calling a "hypocrisy bombshell", today SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile and DC-based LGBT activist Mike Rogers jointly revealed that Mark Buse, John McCain's chief of staff, is a gay man.

From a story just posted on Signorile's blog:

Over the past month I’ve been contacted by three different individuals (two of them members of the Log Cabin Republicans) claiming that McCain’s Senate chief of state, Mark Buse, is gay. None of these individuals would be quoted by name, though each described Buse as being rather “open” to those around him and to his family – in a “glass closet” rather than deeply undercover or trying to appear heterosexual.

Then I was contacted in recent weeks by 46-year-old Brian Davis, an Arizona resident, who told me about his intimate relationship with Mark Buse (confirmed by his mother, as well as by a long-time friend), and who decided he needed to tell the truth about Buse, on the record, in light of John McCain’s dramatic shift to the ideological religious right in this election and his choice of Sarah Palin, starlet of the evangelical movement, as a running mate. (Repeated calls to Mark Buse's office and calls and email to McCain's communications office in the Senate regarding this story were unreturned. Mike Rogers, the blogger and activist who revealed the truth about Senator Larry Craig and others in politics, today reports this same reality about Mark Buse that I report here, with separate, independent sourcing.)

Signorile has posted an old video clip taken by Buse's ex-boyfriend at their apartment in 2000.

Signorile:

John McCain is opposed to every single gay rights measure of recent years –- from a hate crimes bill, to an anti-discrimination bill to an attempt to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military –- and is publicly on record supporting a ballot measure in California this November to strip gays and lesbians there of their legally-won right to marry in that state. If that isn’t enough to make it relevant to report on his 20-year-relationship with a close aide and chief of staff who is gay, the fact that Sarah Palin is now on the ticket -- garnering support for McCain from previously reticent antigay leaders like James Dobson of Focus on the Family –- surely does.

Mark Buse, after all, is a public figure in his own right. His role as chief of staff to a man running for president has elevated him and certainly his controversial former role as a prominent lobbyist has brought media scrutiny to him. And he is running the Senate office of a 72-year-old presidential candidate who has had recurrent cancer and who might well usher into the White House as president a woman who, by what evidence we have, has melded her politics with her evangelical religious beliefs.

On Friday, Mike Rogers went to Buse's office to present him with the Roy Cohn Award.

Mark Buse is not just a Chief of Staff for a homophobic United States Senator, but he is helping that Senator get elected to the White House.

Does Mark Buse fit the Barney Frank rule? Without a doubt. While McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he supports amending state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman. McCain knows our country needs everyone who wants to serve in the military and he knows that DADT is wrong, yet he swings to the right on repealing it.

Worst of all, and a demonstration of his inability to act rationally and with the country's best interests at heart, he picked someone who, if she becomes president (very likely), will be the most homophobic in American history.

With that in mind, and after confirming the information with two other sources, I decided it was time to present Buse the Roy Cohn Award for working against the interests of the lesbian and gay community while living as a gay man.

Go watch the video of Rogers attempting to deliver the award at Buse's office. Buse did not appear.

Mike Rogers:

Does the McCain campaign truly support LGBT Americans? Let's see when the American Family Association weights in. TAKE ACTION and CALL THE AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION and THANK THEM FOR SUPPORTING JOHN MCCAIN even though he has gay Americans in high places on his staff, including his Chief of Staff. You can reach the AFA at 1-800-A-FAMILY (1-800-232-6459)! Call and thank them today.

Oh, this is going to be FUN. But also, UGH. We've got another scumbag traitorous Quisling self-hating homo KAPO working to beat down his fellow queers.

UPDATE: If anybody can find a better picture of Buse, please send it to me. For a guy with such a high profile job, he's done an amazing job of keeping his face out of the news. Thanks very much to the JMG reader who provided the above photo.

UPDATE II: This story is exploding on Daily Kos.

If John McCain keeps this guy on as his chief of staff, does Sarah Palin still get to be raptured?

Honestly.

Who is the bigger hypocrite here?

Mark Buse, an openly gay man who is spending his life helping John McCain block important gay civil rights issues like marriage and adoption?

Or John McCain, who obviously has no problem with gay folks, but has adopted an anti-gay platform out of political expediency and a desire to court people like Sarah Palin, who think that if they just hate enough, they'll be Raptured into the love of Jesus when the End Times come.

Ridiculous.

Mark Buse is obviously a man of some ability. It ain't nothing to get yourself a position as chief of staff to a powerful senator and presidential candidate.

A pity that he is wasting his talents fighting against his gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters. And against everyone else who stands in solidarity for civil rights for all.

It's also a pity for us.

Because his efforts have contributed to the endless delays, damages and humiliations caused to gay and Lesbian Americans as we wait to achieve a full and equal status as citizens of the U.S.

UPDATE III: Since some readers are having trouble understanding the legitimacy of this outing, a reader suggests that we revisit a 2006 JMG post in which we discussed four outing scenarios. From the fourth case study in that post:

John Doe is a highly placed staffer in a prominent Republican senator's office. Doe's boss is virulently anti-gay publicly, even though he graciously hosts Doe and his boyfriend at dinner parties in his home. Doe is dedicated and skilled and with the help of his expert advice, Doe's boss successfully thwarts numerous gay-friendly bills and positions himself as a "pro-family" advocate.

Do we out John Doe?

It's almost as if the above was predicting Mark Buse.