Just two weeks ago, the Romney campaign hired Richard Grenell to serve as the Republican's spokesperson on foreign policy. And while this isn't ordinarily a high-profile position, the decision proved to be problematic for a couple of reasons.
From the left, Grenell proved to be controversial because of a series of social-media messages that targeted women in politics and media with sexist language. From the right, Grenell was criticized for being gay, which some religious right activists found outrageous because, well, they just don't like gay people.
Today, Jennifer Rubin reports that Grenell has been "hounded from the Romney campaign by anti-gay conservatives," just two weeks after joining Team Romney.
Pieces in two conservative publications, the National Review and Daily Caller, reflected the uproar by some social conservatives over the appointment. [...]
The ongoing pressure from social conservatives over his appointment and the reluctance of the Romney campaign to send Grenell out as a spokesman while controversy swirled left Grenell essentially with no job.
The larger significance of this is what it tells us about Romney's relative weakness in the face of pressure from his base. The former governor hired a qualified former Bush administration official; the right said gay people are bad people; so Romney quickly accepted his own staffer's resignation, despite the fact that the aide had done nothing wrong on the job. Romney was comfortable with Grenell's misogynistic tweets before getting the job, but uncomfortable with anti-gay animus from the right after Grenell was already on the job.
If Romney had more courage, he would have stood by his staffer, and told the religious right to get over it. But since that backbone doesn't exist, and Romney's afraid social conservatives' hatred of the president won't be enough on Election Day, Grenell gets to experience firsthand Romney's fondness for firing people who provide services for him.
For more on Grenell's background, here's a segment we aired after he got the job.
Update: Romney aides have since told Rubin that the campaign urged Grenell not to resign. This seems hard to believe -- he was on the job for 10 days, during which time, as Rubin reported, the campaign "did not put Grenell out to comment on national security matters and did not use him on a press foreign policy conference call. Despite the controversy in new media and in conservative circles, there was no public statement of support for Grenell by the campaign and no supportive social conservatives were enlisted to calm the waters."
As Ed Kilgore joked, "Whatever. It doesn’t much matter if Grenell was fired or was made so uncomfortable that he decided to 'self-deport.'"
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The Republican Party has truly reached a dark nadir in what can only be described as Nazi-style social engineering and the targeting of individuals solely because their existence as human beings goes against a certain extreme ideology embraced by a political group. Grenell is a moron who has said many ridiculous and offensive things. He should have been chastised for that. But to be ejected from the Romney campaign only because he is a gay man is hardly a stunning development from the GOP, but it is shocking in its transparency and in Gov. Romney's horrific acquiescence to right-wing radicals wishing to deliberately punish gay Americans. This is a new low for Romney... http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Romney = the Jello* Candidate.
You can see right through it.
It wobbles at the slightest touch.
It it gets too hot, it melts and changes form completely.
If you freeze it, it's full of holes.
It has no significant substance on it's own.
It has no form or shape without an exterior mold.
It is an artificially created product, made from hot water, byproducts, waste, chemicals and flavorings.
*Sorry Jello trademark - it's just too apt.
a gay man working for a basically anti-gay guy.
oh, this is good.
the implosion of mitt-topia.
Screw Grennell anyway for:
A.) Misogyny
B.) Gay and in the GOP.
C.) Being reputable as nothing but slime, as shown by accepting the position in the first place. It's alright "Dick", your former boss is a dick too!
"hounded form the Romney campaign" please fix
How long, just how long, will it take Americans to accept each other as human beings instead of black or white or Christian or Lesbian or fat or whatever? When I was younger, I thought that by the 21st century we'd all be living in some Utopian society in peace and harmony, assuming, I guess, that people would be enlightened and more educated than at any other time in history, and knowledge would override any petty prejudices. Yeah, that's not happening.
Now we have the Internet, capable of giving us a myriad of information at the touch of a button, and yet, what have we learned? Rumors and smears and trash-talking can spread in the blink of an eye, and innocent people can be defamed and derided by breakfast and be out of a job by lunch. I don't know this Grenell, but what did he do that was so terrible that he lost his livelihood? He is GAY? SO WHAT?!
Get a grip, people. Let's act like we're smart. Pretend we've come down from the trees and are walking around on the ground now and we no longer eat each other. We'll be happier for it.
He who would marginalize others, has himself been marginalized... Irony much?
My father, a strange mix of conservative and liberal, is spinning in his grave. While a fiscal conservative, and someone who voted Republican often (but not always), he would NOT recognize the current Republican Party. He certainly wouldn't vote for one.
Great sign in a picture on Facebook of a woman holding a sign which says "I can't believe I still have to protest this @!$%#." She looks to be in her 40s, maybe early 50s. I'm 62, and I concur! It does bother me that this gay Republican man could be a woman hater, and twitter nasty things, but he doesn't get called for that -- he gets called for being not straight. [head shake here] In the last 6 months, this country has regressed at least 40 years in woman's rights, and here we have a staffer for a potential POTUS who would like his own rights, thank you very much, but doesn't want to concede rights to women.
I no longer ask "What is this world coming to?" I'm not sure I want to know the answer!
Anyone who understands the Mormon effect of the Quroum of 12 upon all decisions that Romney makes.
All of Romney's business and political dealings are vetted by the legal team for the LDS elders of whom Romney has intimate contact.
The Romney campaign is brought to you by the Quroum of 12 and the special business interests of the Mormon Church
Maybe a Mormon Miracle can save Romney's bid for the presidency. There's no way he stands a chance against this president with pussy-footing around like this. If he's not yet a literal laughingstock, he will be by Summer.
Grenell was hired to prove that Obama was weak on foreign policy (ha!). He quit because Romney was too weak to stick by him. Priceless! RFLMAO.
But- But Willard really liked him. Well Willard can always keep in touch???? Now you know how the campaign will go. What ever the " right" wants they get. So Willard if you ever had an idea of your own, forget it, it will not fit with the people in charge..Sort of like working for a "Pimp" You'll learn to enjoy it. And since you are thru having children that thrill is gone too. Wow! that makes you just about useless doesn't it...................Good luck in the next life. Oh you don't believe in that either Sorry loser!!!
I detect the involvement of Torquemada Santorum, the MOST homophobic (and that is saying a great deal) Republican. Perhaps Grenell's "resignation" was one of the prerequisites for that oh so valuable Santorum endorsement (after all, he lost his home state by 18%) of Romney. And Romney, with his graphene backbone and desire for Santorum's help with the Inquisition wing of the rabidly right Republican party, enabled the "resignation."
This is the man/boy who want who wants to apply for the most powerful job in the world. What a wose. A boy running the white house and a cry baby as speaker of the house. WoW.
Mitt Romney...that says it all!
When asked why a gay person was a Republican, he foolishly replied "there are other issues". This person is being short sighted and enabling a dangerous group--right wing Republicans. The one issue which covers all the others is EQUALITY. If a person is not seen as an equal by his fellow citizen, he is treated in a second class way. People must never again be told where to sit on a bus, which rest room and water fountain is to be used, which job is suitable for a person's sexual orientation or whom to marry. The first issue above all and the one which covers all is EQUALITY. Republicans do not understand this.