Holding out for Hillary: Washington insider Stephen Herbits was a go-to guy for Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Now Herbits is a big Hillary Clinton fan. But until she gets elected president, he warns, don't expect much from the Democrats

He's worked in the innermost circles of the Republican Party for over 30 years, but now gay activist Stephen Herbits is backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid, saying her victory would do more for gays than the gay rights movement can presently do for itself. A longtime Pentagon consultant and trusted adviser to former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, Herbits doesn't have much confidence that the newly elected Democratic-majority Congress will do much for gays, but he's definitely had it with the current Republican leadership and its attack on gay rights.

Herbits made news in 2006 when a leaked 2004 memo in which he blasted Rumsfeld and his handling of the Iraq war was published in Bob Woodward's latest book, State of Denial. In it he described Rumsfeld's style of operation in Iraq as "arrogant" and "indecisive."

The memo may have ended a decadesold friendship with a man who defended Herbits when he was under attack for being gay. For decades, Herbits says, his sexual orientation had not been a problem at the Pentagon, where he has served every Republican president since Nixon. But when the Reverend Lou Sheldon and other Christian conservatives made a public issue of Herbits's sexuality in 2001, right-wing Republicans went berserk. Herbits offered to resign, but his pal Rumsfeld stepped in, telling him, "You can't leave now, because I can't be seen as bowing to this crap!"

Today, Herbits, 64, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and former Seagram Co. executive, is secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, which represents Jewish communities and organizations in nearly 100 countries. Speaking from his home in Miami Beach, Fla., he talks about his $10,000 contribution to Senator Clinton's White House campaign, the new Congress, and the future of gay rights.

Do you expect the Democratic Congress to push pro-gay legislation this year?

Zero will happen until the next president is elected.... I don't think the Democrats are so secure they can take the risk. All these freshmen, they're not going to go running back to their districts and say, "Hey! I'm elected now and I'm going to do something really bold!" And some of these [new] Democrats are Republicans with the Democratic label. To keep calling them Democrats at this particular juncture is a serious oversimplification of what this Congress is really like.

But aren't they going to have to take a stand on same-sex marriage? That debate is going to remain front and center this year.

Nobody can afford to say to a segment of America right now, "Fuck you." That's what this issue does at the moment.... We've just a taken a fairly nice step...toward getting back to more serious issues of life and death and war and the economy, and for us to try to jam this down their throat, I think, is bad. We as a community have mishandled the gay marriage issue. You push too hard and you get pushed back, and we're now 20 years behind where we were two years ago.... When you want to change something as radical as that, you don't do it through the courts, you do it through the public, and if the public doesn't adjust to it over time, you're going to find yourself in trouble.

Why are you such a big supporter of Hillary Clinton's campaign?

She's doing a terrific job [on the Senate Armed Services Committee]. She clearly has made a decision to make a contribution to government first and to worry about politics secondly [while she remains extremely popular].

You've also contributed to Bush's campaign, so how do you vote?

What's confusing is that people think I'm a Republican because I work for them.... I'm registered as an Independent. My voting record I don't share with people because it is private ... [but] it's hard for me to say I'm not supporting the Democrats when I'm giving them money.

Do you think Clinton will make a good gay rights advocate?

I don't think there is a single gay view about what's right ... [but] my view on that is that overall she's going to be terrific. I believe in my heart that the election of a woman president will do more for gay rights than the gay rights movement will do for gay rights. It breaks such a barrier that it opens up diversity for everyone.

Do you think the recent gay sex scandals surrounding evangelical leaders will shake the GOP and the religious right off their antigay efforts?

I think it embarrasses them, but I don't think it has an impact on policy. In my lifetime there have been four or five cases of major evangelicals spending time in bed with men, and they seem to overcome that pretty well each time.

So what has happened to all the turmoil over gays in the military? Does the Pentagon really think gays are bad for morale?

Once you're in war, suddenly all the prohibitions start flying out the window, because nobody cares. They've got to keep people in, and suddenly the numbers [of gays getting thrown out] start to drop precipitously. It's an interesting phenomenon that just puts the lie to the whole concept.

You have been a friend and an adviser to Rumsfeld for over 30 years, and you even defended him in an op-ed piece in 2006. So how much damage did that memo published in Woodward's book do to your relationship?

Let's just say I haven't heard from him .... I'm not happy about it, but neither am I happy about the mess that this country has created with its international policy. Some things trump others. I also told [Rumsfeld] I have a problem with the president using gay issues as a wedge issue for political purposes. And I said what's particularly offensive about it is that I know for a fact that Bush doesn't believe it, so it's even more disgusting to me that he would use this issue.

Resume

Stephen Herbits

* Graduates from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1964: moves to Washington D.C., 1 to work on Capitol Hill

* Meets Donald Rumsfetd, then a congressman from Chicago, while editing the 1967 congressional report "How to End the Draft: The Case for an AIl-Volunteer Army

* Graduates from Georgetown University Law Center in 1972

* Tapped by Rumsfeld, serving as chief of staff to President Gerald Ford to help in the hiring of cabinet officials in 1974

* Becomes Rumsfeld's top civilian aide after Rumsfetd is named secretary of defense by Ford in 1975

* Following Ford's defeat in 1976 joins the Seagram Co., where he later becomes executive vice president

* Heads recruitment for Caspar Weinberger's Pentagon in 1980, Later that year returns to work at Seagram in New York City, where

* Helps fund founding of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation

* Returns to D,C. in 1989 to work for longtime friend Dick Cheney, then the secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush

* Convinces Seasrarn to sponsor "The Long Road to Freedom," a 1996 traveling exhibition from the archives of The Advocate

* Retires from Seagram in 1997 and moves to Miami Beach, Fla., where he sets up a consulting business and volunteers with gay rights groups and other nonprofit organizations

* Returns to the Pentagon in 2001 as a consultant to Rumsfeld

* Becomes secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress in 2005

Cook has also written for The Washington Post and The New York Times.