Mitt Romney's Bigotry Needs No Spokesman
By Michael Kinsley May 3, 2012 6:00 PM ET Facebook Share Tweet
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Mitt Romney didn't exactly fire Ric Grenell, who is gay, as his
foreign policy spokesman. But when the religious right got wind of
Grenell's hiring, his job started to shrink.
Grenell was told to sit in on conference calls with reporters and not
say anything, which is tantamount to firing him. He was told to be
silent not merely on gay issues. He was told not to talk about
anything, even foreign policy. A spokesman who is not allowed to speak
-- even internally -- doesn't have much of a job. So Grenell quit,
three weeks after he was hired.
About Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley is an editor and columnist at Bloomberg View. His
column appears on Fridays. For many years he was the editor of the New
Republic and a columnist for the Washington Post. He was the founding
Editor of Slate.
More about Michael Kinsley
For Romney, this is the first big flub of the general election
campaign. Until now, his smooth-running machine was one of the more
impressive things about his candidacy. It made you think that maybe,
as a businessman, he really could bring some efficiency to the White
House, if not to the government as a whole.
Besides being offensive, however, this episode is remarkably inept.
Grenell apparently was completely open about his sexuality. Why did
Romney appoint him in the first place if he was going to hang the guy
out to dry as soon as there was any criticism? (And there never was
much.) If you're going to be a bigot, at least be smart about it.
Although, as a weak-kneed liberal, I hate to talk like this, this
episode does make you wonder about Romney's guts. He portrays himself
(and probably thinks of himself) as a hard- nosed businessman, ready
to make the tough decisions that professional politicians won't.
Romney has even defended his famous flip-flops in these terms. "In the
private sector," he says, "if you don't change your view when the
facts change, well, you'll get fired for being stubborn and stupid."
I don't know about that. You see a lot of stubbornness and stupidity
in stories about business, but not so much about business executives
getting fired for it.
Romney seems obsessed with firing people. In January, you may recall,
he committed a gaffe by saying he enjoyed doing it. He seems to
consider it as evidence of a backbone and a tough hide. He also likes
to say that if you want this or that undesirable quality in your
president, "I'm not your man." This also is supposed to signal
toughness, as well as independence of thought.
Better evidence would have been telling the people who complained
about his hiring of a gay man as an adviser where they could put their
objections. And has he stopped to ask himself how he will manage to
fill a Romney administration if he excludes all gay men (and women?)
from the candidate pool?
Romney is right of course that there's nothing wrong with changing
your mind. But you should (a) be prepared to admit it and (b) be
prepared to explain it.
In his most famous flip-flop, about health care, Romney has tried,
instead, to have it both ways. He has never renounced his
Massachusetts health-care plan, with its individual mandate almost
identical to the one in President Barack Obama's. He just says that he
will veto Obamacare on Day One of his administration, because the
individual mandate is so awful.
Nor has he explained his change of mind on abortion or gay rights, on
which he once said he would be a better advocate than Ted Kennedy.
Many moderates and independents may still believe that at heart Romney
is a moderate Republican who fortunately has no principles and will
say whatever it takes to win. Actually, citizens of all stripes across
the country more or less believe that Romney's been faking who he is,
but it's moderates he must now convince that he's been lying like mad
for the past year.
He's going to need a few really top-notch spin doctors to perform this
operation successfully. Too bad for him that he just drove a good one
away.
More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/mitt-romney-s-bigotry-needs-no-spokesman.html
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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