Romney says he wanted gay spokesman to stay on job

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Romney says he wanted gay spokesman to stay on job

By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he wanted an openly gay spokesman who resigned from the campaign to stay on.

In an interview Friday 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 spokesman, Richard Grenell, a "capable individual" and said many senior campaign aides urged him not to leave.

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.

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Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-uglCQ4LMHpHSPUTVariXnw4BMw?docId=97d076976e3d4269bb774e11ed043eac

[freshwest]

1. Sounds like Mitt doesn't manage very well.

[Skinner]

2. Of all people, I think Mitt Romney could have made Grenell stay if he wanted him to.

And yet Grenell is no longer on the campaign.

[enough]

3. Right, if Romney wanted him to stay, why is he gone? (nt)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Yeah

Who's in charge of ROMNEY'S campaign?

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Romney is a COWARD

If this is true, then he needs to rebuke his right wing homophobes. But he won't do it because he's a coward.

[Enrique]

5. i like to fire people

and then say I wanted them to stay.

[brooklynite]

6. Good thing he was so forceful in telling his aides that before Grenell left.

[Arkana]

7. Then why did he leave?

If Romney truly felt this way Grenell would not have been fired. Because he was, it shows us one of two things:

1) Romney is an incompetent delegator who allowed a subordinate to shitcan a valuable campaign worker, which does not speak well of how he'd manage a Presidency, or

2) Romney is lying through his teeth once again so he can have it both ways--appease the fundies by getting rid of the gay guy while simultaneously winking at the center that he didn't want to do it but those nasty fundies FORCED HIM to! Which, in turn, leads me to believe that he'd do nothing but rubber stamp a fundie social agenda.

Either way it's bad for Romney.

[The Magistrate]

8. So Wee-Willie Willard is Not in Charge Of His Campaign, Sir?

If he is the boss, he just has to say, 'The man stays: I want him'.

[Iggo]

9. Then he'd still be on the job.

Try again, Dogroof.

[bemildred]

10. And in the closet. nt

[SDjack]

11. Mittens will fit right in as a Washington policitician.

First, he lays out his broad polices (e.g. no gays in the Rmoney 2012 campaign), delegates to his chief of staff, and when the CoS implements the anti-gay policy, Mittens undercuts him.

[Botany]

12. Then why is he gone now?

Mitt can make a phone call right now and ask the guy to come back on board
but he doesn't have the guts to do that.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. Geez!

If he can't even stand up to the Christian Right bullies in the GOP, how the hell can we expect him to stand up to "terraists".

[jenmito]

15. He used "their sexual preference"-not "their orientation." That's pandering to the RWers. n/t

[yellowcanine]

16. Words Words Words. Right Mitt. Sure you did. And a call from you wouldn't have kept him on?

I refuse to believe that.

[yellowcanine]

17. With this and the Chinese dissident foot in mouth kerfuffle Mitt is headed toward the "Worst Week in

Washington" award.

[davidpdx]

18. Rmoney was probably driving the bus that ran the guy over

Too bad no one got a picture of it.