Gay spokesman for Romney quits....what a sad move

Romney says he wanted gay spokesman to stay on job

By KASIE HUNT | Associated Press – 

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.

Z:  Romney wanted the best man for the job and thought he had him; I applaud him for that. Then he meets Santorum, says the AP writer, as if, because he didn't mind having a gay man working for him, he shouldn't meet with 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.

Z:  Good for Romney.

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.

Z:   The best kept secret:  Many evangelical Christians don't hate gays.  MOST don't hate anybody.

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.

Z:  Grenell shouldn't have left.  Who cares what conservative critics say about his sexual orientation?  Anyway, it's the left that's so eager to 'out' gays. 

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."

Z:  Grow up, Grenell...be a man and do your job.

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.

Z:  That's a class act.

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."

Z:  Oops!  He'd 'previously' denounced intolerance.....does that infer he isn't now?  Can we have proof of that, please?  Or is that just another cute way for the AP writer to get her licks in at Romney?

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.

Z:  what a bunch of BUNK.  Considering MARRIAGE an act between two members of the opposite sex is not anti-gay.    There is no law prohibiting gays having relationships, living together, even adopting children.  I may not be for their adopting, and you might not be, either, but it is LEGAL.   Also, they can get anything they want by going to lawyers and making agreements and I urge them to do so.   

Being against gay marriage is not hating gays, no matter how the left wants to slam Conservatives....
We might even consider homosexuality wrong, we're entitled, but they're entitled to make their choices.  And to not be belittled or insulted or degraded.

Romney certainly didn't do that, no matter how the AP writer wanted to pitch it.

Grenell should have stayed.  I'm sorry he didn't.

Z