Listen, Mitt Romney is obviously not a fan of gay marriage . Now, it’s possible he sought to amend that by hiring Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, as his foreign policy spokesman, and things were going swimmingly… for about two weeks until Grenell resigned from his post.
Grenell was already a controversial choice for two reasons. One, he’s gay, and that’s not tracking well with conservatives, despite the fact that Grenell has actually long-been a loyal Republican, employed by foreign policy figures like former Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, as well as tenure as a former Bush administration official. Two, he’s the culprit behind a string of mocking Tweets aimed at Callista Gingrich and prominent women on the left, like Rachel Maddow and Hillary Clinton. These Tweets have since been deleted, but some still suggest that they played a role in Grenell’s resignation.
In any case, here’s Grenell’s official statement:
“I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama’s foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team.”
Team Romney’s reaction , from campaign manager Matt Rhoades:
“We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons, […] We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill.”
In any case, poor Grenell is out of Romney’s camp now, for better or worse. Let this be a lesson to all, once again, because it never seems to sink in: watch what you say online!
