Romney wants gay spokesman to stay on job

Bliss · May 5, 2012

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-says-wanted-gay-spokesman-stay-job-155322319.html

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Walking a careful line, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday he had wanted an openly gay spokesman who resigned from his campaign this week to stay on. Hours later, he worked to court the party's conservative wing by meeting with former rival Rick Santorum.

In an interview with Fox News, Romney said his campaign hires people "not based upon their ethnicity, or their sexual preference or their gender but upon their capability." He called the former spokesman, Richard Grenell, a "capable individual" and said many senior campaign aides urged him not to leave. :smt023

Romney struggled through the primary to court conservatives, particularly evangelical Christian voters, and many flocked to Santorum. Now the presumptive nominee, Romney is trying to court the base of the party without alienating independent, swing and other voters he will need to beat Democratic President Barack Obama in November.

Details on what Romney and Santorum discussed were not immediately available. Santorum did not offer Romney his endorsement.

The Grenell flap shows how carefully Romney is treading on the subject. Grenell was hired in late April to speak for Romney on national security and foreign policy issues.

A vocal supporter of gay marriage, which Romney opposes, Grenell resigned Tuesday after conservative critics raised questions about his sexual orientation. His departure also came after he was conspicuously absent from a week of campaign discussion dominated by national security issues, in part because of the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden.

Grenell said in a statement that he felt his ability to do his job was "greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues."

His departure sparked an outcry among gay rights groups. Romney's comments were his first on the issue, and he did not hit back at Grenell's critics or defend him. He said it was Grenell's decision to leave the campaign.

In a separate appearance Friday on MSNBC, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom insisted that Romney previously had denounced the "voices of intolerance that expressed themselves during this debate."

At an appearance at the Values Voter Summit in October, Fehrnstrom said Romney "denounced some of the poisonous language that was being used by some of the same people" who criticized Grenell.

"We should remember that decency and civility are values too," Romney said at that conference, referring to Bryan Fischer, an activist at the American Family Association, which promotes traditional family values. "One of the speakers who will follow me today has crossed that line, I think. Poisonous language doesn't advance our cause."

At the conference, Romney also implicitly criticized figures on the religious right who were attacking his Mormon faith, including evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress. At the time, Jeffress was supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was running against Romney in the Republican presidential primary.

Fischer has made anti-gay remarks in the past and was one of the people who criticized Grenell. "Romney picks out & loud gay as a spokesman. If personnel is policy, his message to the pro-family community: drop dead," Fischer said on Twitter after Grenell was hired.
Click to expand...

WTH is wrong with people. Grenell is NOT an elected politician, he just worked for one. Last I checked, there are laws against harassing people doing their job based on their sexual orientation.

.

Alinoa · May 5, 2012

Bliss said: ↑

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-says-wanted-gay-spokesman-stay-job-155322319.html

WTH is wrong with people. Grenell is NOT an elected politician, he just worked for one. Last I checked, there are laws against harassing people doing their job based on their sexual orientation.

.
Click to expand...

We agree here as well. Who you sleep with is not a moral deficit. Good for Romney to stick up for that principle.

Jase · May 5, 2012

I have very little sympathy for Grenell who is a complete prick. Not sure why gay and minority Republicans don't expect to get thrown under the bus the second the bigots that saturate their ranks make a stink.

But I think Bryan Fischer of American Family Association, the religious homophobe who basically instigated the entire mess by attacking Romney for letting a homosexual be part of his campaign summed it up best:

Fischer: Let me ask you this question, people have raised this question, if Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, coopted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin? How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me? I don’t think Romney is realizing the doubts that this begins to raise about his leadership. I don’t think for one minute that Mitt Romney did not want this guy gone; he wanted this guy gone because there was not one word of defense, not a peep, from the Romney camp to defend him. They just went absolutely stone cold silent, they put a bag over Grenell’s head, they even asked him to organize this phone conference and they didn’t even let him speak at the conference that he organized.
Click to expand...

Mitt Romney, ever the coward.

Sign In

Register

Romney wants gay spokesman to stay on job

Bliss Well-Known Member

Alinoa New Member

Jase Active Member

Share This Page

White Women Black Men.com