The socon excuse regarding Grenell's resignation strikes me as odd. Surely Team Romney vetted the choice before making the hire?
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Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) May 01, 2012Romney spokesman Richard Grenell resigned today and, of course, the Left is in full spin. They are trying to claim he was forced out by the “anti-gay right wing.” Because, haters or something. This doesn’t quite pass the smell … or the tweet … test.
One assumes that Team Romney at least read Grenell's Twitter feed before hiring him. What did they expect?—
Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) May 01, 2012
Grenell’s 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.
The Washington Post also reports the following:
It’s not clear from his statement which “personal issues” caused Grenell to resign. Some supporters of President Obama’s campaign have decided it was his sexual orientation.
And here they go.
This is the kind of bigoted, anti-gay extremists a Romney administration would find itself held hostage to — wapo.st/KoWfJ9—
Bill Burton (@billburton716) May 01, 2012
Today we learned that in the year 2012, a Republican nominee for President can't have a gay person as spokesman—
Teddy Goff (@teddygoff) May 01, 2012
Profiles in Cowardice: Romney wimps out, lets anti-gay activists drive gay spokesman from his campaign. thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/gay…—
Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) May 01, 2012
Conservatives force Grenell’s ouster maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/… via @maddow—
Wendy Stankevich (@WendyStankevich) May 01, 2012
Fischer: Grenell Resignation a 'Huge Win' for the Religious Right bit.ly/JnsJ5H you bet it its, bigots.—
Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 01, 2012
But, there is the Tweet Scandal Du Jour; Grenell had been frantically scrubbing tweets because the Left was jumping on them as “sexist.” And many are upset at once again being accused of bigotry as a matter of course.
Think Progress hounded Romney Spokesman because he didn't like women: bit.ly/IDcqbZ—
Timothy P Carney (@TPCarney) May 01, 2012
Just want to point this out –> Grennell deleted over 800 tweets after left-wing bloggers caught him huff.to/KFirDV @jrubinblogger—
David Freddoso (@freddoso) May 01, 2012
It's absolutely despicable that @ThinkProgress and @stlactivisthub are saying Romney caved to bigots, and that's why Grenell resigned.—
Luke Londo (@llondo) May 01, 2012
@daveweigel Just to get this right. Grenell served 4 7 yrs under Bush. No outcry from conservatives….—
Kathleen McKinley (@KatMcKinley) May 01, 2012
Richard Grenell's orientation has little to do with this story except for politicizing, but the Democrats would never resort to that.—
(@Wittorical) May 01, 2012
Seems debatable how much Grenell's resignation was from social conservative pressure, how much from his controversial tweets.—
Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) May 01, 2012
Lemme clue you in why Grenell REALLY left, kids: huff.to/InJH9X || bit.ly/ITvi2f || slate.me/InJEL8—
Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) May 01, 2012
Hmm RT @BuzzFeedAndrew: Any reporter trolled by Grenell on Twitter could see problems for Romney camp a mile ahead when they hired him.—
Guy Benson (@guypbenson) May 01, 2012
There will of course be frantic cries of “how awful, H8Rs” even from amongst Conservatives who are quick to make sure everyone knows they aren’t bigots or homophobes.
RT @samsteinhp: GOProud's LaSalvia on Grenell resignation: "a sad day in America" huff.to/KoYj3M—
Patrick Caldwell (@patwcaldwell) May 01, 2012
RT @mattklewis: Obama's gotta love Jennifer Rubin's headline: "Richard Grenell hounded from Romney campaign by anti-gay conservatives."—
Dr. Schadenfreude (@PoliticsOfFear) May 01, 2012
But, what purpose does that serve? The media will still assume that you are and encouraging this kind of misleading witch hunt gives credence to their spin.
Several sources say Romney aides tried to keep Grenell on board. But they're not saying on record, so idea he was drummed out will dominate.—
maggie haberman (@maggiepolitico) May 01, 2012
Idea that Grenell left just because he's openly gay is preposterous. Santorum had an openly gay comms director as a senator. No one cared.—
John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) May 01, 2012
ThinkProgress: It was sexist for Romney camp to hire Grenell thinkprogress.org/special/2012/0… & anti-gay to let him go thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/0… #nuance—
John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) May 01, 2012
Ok, lemme understand: Romney hires gay comms staffer, asks him to stay, said staffer quits anyway; ergo Romney and GOP are anti-gay. What?—
Keith Urbahn (@keithurbahn) May 01, 2012
It seems clear the Romney camp tried to convince Mr. Grenell not to resign. He chose to do so anyway. Just like he chose to tweet out snarky comments that the Left could use as ammunition. The Left had it in for him, not the Right.
Team Obama is loving this.
