Ordinarily, a presidential campaign hiring a foreign policy spokesperson would generate very few headlines, but the Romney campaign's decision to add Richard Grenell to the team has proven to be a little more interesting.
For some on the right, Grenell's sexual orientation is apparently supposed to be a dealbreaker.
A leading anti-gay figure in the Republican Party attacked Governor Mitt Romney for hiring an openly gay spokesman, sending a shot from the GOP's socially-conservative base across the nominee's bow.
Bryan Fischer, the director of issue analysis for the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, is probably the most straightforwardly anti-gay Republican to appear regularly in the party's mainstream. Presidential candidates including Rick Santorum have appeared on his radio show, and he spoke at the Values Voter Summit in Washington in October.
He responded yesterday to Romney's decision to hire an openly-gay -- "out & loud gay," in Fischer's terms -- foreign policy spokesman, Richard Grenell by calling it a "message to the pro-family community" of "drop dead."
Today, Fischer announced a series of steps he expects Romney to take in order to "contain the collateral damage from this spectacularly misbegotten decision." Among the demands: bringing back "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and a formal endorsement of North Carolina's pending anti-gay ballot measure. [Update: Fischer isn't the only conservative outraged by the hire.]
From a very different perspective, some on the other end of the political spectrum have taken note of Grenell's messages on social media, many of which have targeted women in politics and media. Michael Calderone reported over the weekend that Grenell "appears to have deleted more than 800 of his past tweets following scrutiny over numerous swipes aimed at the media, prominent Democratic women and the Gingriches. Grenell also apparently took down his personal site, which featured writing on politics, foreign affairs and the media."
As for whether Grenell's messages have any relevance in the presidential campaign, it's difficult for Team Romney to say President Obama bears responsibility for everything Bill Maher and Hilary Rosen say, especially about women, but Romney bears no responsibility for what his own foreign policy spokesperson has said.
If you missed it, here's a segment we ran on Friday's show that mentioned some of Grenell's messages.
Leave a Comment:
My gawd Mitt added a gay republican man to his campaign. Diversity at last. What's next an unmarried mother? How about a former immigrant Hispanic citizen, or a union worker.
Or maybe a mulatto touch-typist (to brazenly steal from Bloom County).
1) Isn't this the same guy that was diss'ing Rachael - probably jealous, she looks better than he does?
2) Is this self-hating guy upset at women because he's not one?
3) Mittens you can now formally kiss the Presidency good-bye as those uber religuluous zealots on the right will definitely NOT vote for you.
4) If Richard Grenell's pick was to placate "the gay" in America - please note - that this is like saying "some of my best friends are black" and will not work!
5) "It's too late baby to turn back now, though you really did try to make it" - (hum it to the tune of Carol King and you get the message)
2) Is this self-hating guy upset at women because he's not one?
Careful here. I'm sure you aren't trying to be transphobic, as I'm sure you're aware that many transfolk also have depression, but I personally feel it's nothing to joke about. It's also nothing so simple as just wanting to be the other sex.
Again, I'm not trying to attack, just to advocate for my community and less hurtful language.
Ditto, Kirsten.
We will always hate what we know the least about , and the GOP will always lead in all hate formulations. Trusty little group , really.
I wonder how Grenell will take being targeted by the anti-gay GOPers.
I know most gay folk are used to being bullied, even self loathing… but come on… your own party wants to put you back in the closet, lock the door or worse. Is this to be filed under "I'll take any abuse for a tax cut"?
I honestly do not get these GOP LGBT folk. I have friends that say "I'm a Republican". My mouth drops as I ask"why?".
Because the libertarian belief is that money = liberty. If you have more access to money then you have more liberty. Therefore it would be better to have a bigger tax cut because that would directly translate into more liberty.
The argument goes that since rich people hold all the power and do not have equal application of the law and can bend the law to serve their interests it is therefore better to have more money.
He is already going through reprogramming and should be straight in a couple of weeks.
Or maybe he'll just "self-deport" to end the controversy once and for all.
Major glitch number one: What if Mitt only runs on 110 volts root-mean-squared @ 60 Cycles per second ??
Ever play I Spy with your kids ?? You secretly pick something in the room and begin describing it in detail by minute detail until someone figures out what it is ?? Socrates loved that game. First question: Is it animal, mineral or ….??? This exercise teaches how to ask questions. Kind of handy really. . . .
I read some of Grenell's tweets BEFORE he deleted them. This man apparently hates women - perfect place for him to be is with Romney!
OK, as you may have asked, What is ( RMS= root mean squared ) well it ='s “ effective mathematical power “ . The real voltage peck to peck in our homes is close to 176 volts, all this while reversing polarity 60 times a second. Mitt Romney ( A/C) , the Alternating Circuit president for America. . . . ?? just trying to help. . . .
Let those bigots, hate-mongers, homophobes, and racists reveal themselves. I bet you Mitt Romney won't defend sexual-orientation... He'll obfuscate or back down to the extremists.
Why is the mainstream media giving Mitt Romney and his toxic campaign a pass on almost every major scandal breaking around Mitt's presidential bid? They devote an entire week to the "horror" of a TV pundit wholly unaffiliated with President Obama daring to speak the truth about the privileged existence of Mitt Romney's family behind their mansion doors, while outrage after outrage emanates from Camp Romney to total silence. First Ted Nugent, a public endorser of Mitt who has been touted as a supporter by the campaign itself, threatens the president yet receives no rebuke from the GOP or Romney himself. Now this spectacular gaffe in hiring a loose cannon with a litany of unacceptable public statements. What will it take to bring Romney down? http://www.sunstateactivist.org
I believe this is why the media are giving Romney/Republicans a better portrayal:
http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart
The number one on the list is Bain Capital/Clear Channel and is headquartered in Texas
It may also explain the ads people dislike watching here.
Obfuscate sounds kinky even for a Mormon.
For the life of me I can't understand the concept of a Gay Republican! As much as they hate us why would a GLBT person ever entertain being part of such a bigoted group of people.
Nobody is defined by any single characteristic. There are many people who gravitate to the right for reasons that make sense to them even though that means going against some objective self-interest. So you have gays who vote Republican, straight women of child-bearing years who vote Republican, working-class people who vote Republican, and so on. If you want to have a go a trying to understand it, I suggest starting here. Then try this.
Quick call Beowulf! Ooops Grenell not Grendel sorry 'bout that.
Appeasement? Hardly.
Anything that gives Bryan Fischer heartburn is a good deal.
Really? So we're going to tell all those gays who came out of the closet "no no you gotta go back in". Isn't that kind've like saying you're going to cap an oil spill...
O wait
That's sort of the right-wing mission: put all the toothpaste in all the world back into all the tubes.
Or get the rabbits out of Australia, or kudzu out of the American south, or lionfish out of the Caribbean, or...
Romney keeps up the meme: President Obama didn't start the economic disaster, he just made it worse. When will someone ask him what started the disaster? Conservatives say that Obama blames everyone else for the mess, will W take credit for the disaster or do they blame Clinton?