Romney says he wanted gay spokesman to stay on job.

[bluesbassman]

Sure you did Mitt, but he just stormed out of the office and there wasn't a thing you could do to stop him.

This guy gets sleazier by the minute. Does he even remotely think that this will fly with anybody? Who's he trying to pander to? Gays? Independents? Does he think his stock will go up with fundies by saying this? The guy is certifiable.

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.

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.

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

[Politicalboi]

1. See

He's Pro Gay.

I'm sure by Monday morning he'll hire Richard back faster than you can say Etch A Sketch.

[bluesbassman]

2. Does he really believe that flopping around like a tuna inspires confidence?

It's incomprehensible to me just who he's trying to appeal to. Either he's dumber than a sack of rocks, or schizophrenic.

[xchrom]

3. When Mitt Romney Fired a Gay Staffer, 2004 Edition

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/mitt-romney-fire-gay-staffer-ardith-wieworka

Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney's newly christened foreign policy spokesman, stepped down from the campaign on Tuesday. Grenell, who is gay, had come under fire from social conservative activists who viewed his hiring as a slap in the face. Although a Romney spokesman claimed the campaign had wanted Grenell to stay on, Romney staffers had already begun to shut him out before his resignation, counseling the gay foreign policy spokesman to stay silent during a recent campaign press call on foreign policy.

The episode is reminiscent of a controversy that occurred when Romney was governor of Massachusetts: The 2004 dismissal of Ardith Wieworka, longtime head of the state's Office of Child Care Services, who alleged that she had been terminated because of her decision to marry her partner.

In May of that year, the same month same-sex marriage was legalized in the Bay State, the Northeastern University press office published a story announcing that Wieworka intended to marry her longtime partner, Carol Lyons, who worked at the school as the dean of career services.

The next month, Romney traveled to Washington, DC, to testify in support of a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. "Marriage is…a fundamental and universal social institution that bears a real and substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of all the people of Massachusetts," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Two weeks later, the Boston Globe reported that Ronald Preston, Romney's state health and human services commissioner, asked Wieworka to resign.

[Eugene]

6. Thanks for pointing that out. nt

[deacon]

4. Shows what a weak leader he is and would be. n/t

[polichick]

5. Our guy let's 'em go under pressure too. Van Jones. Elizabeth Warren...

Sad all the way around.