Mitt Romney Throws Openly Gay Foreign Policy Adviser Richard Grenell Under the Right Wing Bus

'Flip-Flop Mitt' is Also 'Cut and Run Mitt'

It is entirely possible that Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States.  Actually, not only is it possible but given a possible impending slowdown in the economy and the hundreds of millions that outside groups will spend on behalf of Mr. Romney the chances are better than 50% that he will be the next President.  Mr. Obama may be leading in the polls now, but how big a lead will he have after $1 billion of negative attack ads have been aimed at him.

So The Dismal Political Economist has been trying, really trying to find things to like about Mr. Romney.  Unfortunately Mr. Romney just makes it so darn hard.  His latest action is to force the resignation of an openly gay foreign policy adviser that was hired by the campaign to provide support for Mr. Romney in the foreign policy area.

Richard Grenell, the openly gay spokesman recently hired to sharpen the foreign policy message of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, has resigned in the wake of a full-court press by anti-gay conservatives.

The news was first reported by Washington Post Romney columnist Jennifer Rubin.  No one should mistake this for anything else but a forced resignation, no matter what the spin or the public persona.  The campaign may have used this friendly source to try and perpetuate the myth that the decision was Mr. Genell’s and that the Romney campaign really wanted him to stay.

The Romney camp has now responded via campaign manager Matt Rhoades: “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.”

but even the rabidly partisan Romney supporter Ms. Rubin wasn’t buying it. 

The so-called voluntary resignation was anything but voluntary, and no one buys the story that the Romney campaign wanted Mr. Grenell to stay but he left of his own volition.

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.

Pieces in two conservative publications, the National Review and Daily Caller, reflected the uproar by some social conservatives over the appointment. [UPDATE, 4:30 p.m.: Although Grenell also raised the ire of liberal commentators with now-deleted tweets about certain prominent women, none of the sources I spoke with mentioned the tweets as a factor in his resignation decision.]

In the National Review, Matthew J. Franck wrote late last week: “Suppose Barack Obama comes out — as Grenell wishes he would — in favor of same-sex marriage in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. How fast and how publicly will Richard Grenell decamp from Romney to Obama?”

So Mr. Romney jettisons an adviser just as soon as objections are raised about his private life from his prejudiced base, just like he jettison's position he previously held that are now bothersome to his campaign.  How can anyone believe that this man has the character to be President?