Richard Grenell, the openly gay spokesman hired by Romney’s campaign to sharpen the foreign policy , has resigned over a barrage of complaints from homophobe conservatives…
Grenell says:
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.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Grenell decided to resign after being kept under wraps during a time when national security issues, including the president’s ad concerning Osama bin Laden, had emerged front and center in the campaign.
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.
Romney camp has this to say: “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.”
UPDATE (3:50 p.m.): Right Turn has learned from multiple sources that the senior officials from the Romney campaign and respected Republicans not on the campaign contacted Ric Grenell over the weekend in an attempt to persuade him not to leave the campaign.
Two things. I always find it a gross miss carriage for any gay person to work for a candidate who believes that gays do not deserve equal rights. It’s quite disgusting actually. Romney has done NOTHING for the gay community and has also signed the NOM anti-gay pledge. Now for the other point, even though i disagree with Grenell’s choice of jobs, he should NOT have resigned his position because that is letting these right wing anti-gay assholes win. If reports are true that Romney and other repubs urged him to stay on (which i question), then he should have stood his ground. As wrong as i think his choice to join Romney was, I think quitting in this case is a bigger mistake…
