McGreevey says he didn't support gay marriage for the same reason he was a relentless womanizer: because he didn't want people to think he was gay. Considering how agonizing being in the closet is said to be, that's plausible. But this is McGreevey's answer for everything. He wants to use his seedy personal life as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Problem is, he wasn't just a sleazy man, he was also a very sleazy politician.

In 2004, 77 percent of New Jerseyans polled said McGreevey resigned because he's gay - and that's precisely the sort of damaging misinterpretation McGreevey perpetuates. "He wasn't a gay governor," state Sen. John Adler told Kinney. "He was a bad governor."

Some gay rights groups were initially eager to make McGreevey a homosexual hero-martyr. The Human Rights Campaign celebrated the "courage" of America's "first openly gay governor."

But they seem to be getting cold feet. He's not selling well. His appearance on "Oprah," intended as the first way station toward his beatification, received high ratings, but he generally got poor reviews. McGreevey is posing as a victim of something, but it's not clear what it is. He lives with an Australian tycoon in a lavish manse in New Jersey. He reportedly got half a million dollars to describe how he betrayed everyone he claimed to love in Penthouse Forum detail. He told Matt Lauer on "Today" that he behaved so badly partly because he had straight parents who couldn't teach him to be gay.

Perusing various gay blogs, one can find expressions of sympathy with the no-doubt real anguish of being in the closet. But as for McGreevey the man, there's mostly contempt or prurient fascination. What there isn't is a groundswell to make this guy a hero. Because he isn't one.