The Richard Grenell Fiasco: How a Cynical Political Move Blew Up in
Mitt Romney's Face
A week ago a Washington reporter contacted me to discuss Mitt Romney's
hiring an openly gay foreign policy spokesman, Richard Grenell. She
thought it was a watershed moment for the GOP and made the comment
that if Bryan Fischer, the extreme-far-right American Family
Association radio host who attacked the appointment, was the Romney
campaign's only problem, then they were doing pretty good.
Fast-forward several days: Bryan Fischer is holding Grenell up like a
jackal he's just captured and skinned alive.
"So this is huge, ladies and gentleman," Fischer bellowed on his radio
program yesterday, after hearing the news that Grenell had resigned.
"This is absolutely huge, that a homosexual activist in a very
prominent place in Mitt Romney's campaign has stepped down. He has
resigned, and it's very clear from The Washington Post that he has
resigned because of pressure put on the Romney campaign from the
pro-family community. So, ladies and gentleman, this is a huge win,
and it's a huge win for us in regard to Mitt Romney."
Actually, I believe this is a big win for progressives and for gay
journalists and commentators, as well. We drew out the conservative
leaders in addition to Fischer, like Family Research Council's Tony
Perkins, Gary Bauer, and other commentators on NationalReview.com and
The Daily Caller, by bringing forth and continually highlighting the
true facts about Grenell, which, to most Americans, are completely
acceptable, but which, in the eyes of the evangelical right, make him
a radical homosexual. As I wrote in a post last week, Grenell isn't
just gay, like some other gay Republicans who stay quiet about their
homosexuality. He's a gay man who very publicly expressed that he
wants to get married to another man and who believes President Obama
isn't adequate on LGBT rights.
Why is it this a win? Because Grenell was being used for cover by a
candidate with abhorrently anti-gay positions, a man who has promised
to "propose and promote" a federal marriage amendment if elected
president. I don't buy the argument made by some that it was a measure
of progress that Romney hired a gay man as his foreign policy
spokesperson when he's using that gay man to make himself appear
moderate to independents while promising the GOP base that he'll make
gay people into second-class citizens. Actual progress in the GOP will
come when their presidential candidates stop bowing to bigots and
refuse to sign their extremist pledges. Otherwise, it's all window
dressing.
We were proven right that Grenell was being used for cover by virtue
of the fact that Romney so easily cut him loose the moment the cynical
scheme blew up in his face. Predictably, I've started to see some in
the media buying the Romney campaign's late and desperate counterspin
in which campaign officials claim that they were supposedly begging
Grenell to stay but that he left on his own for personal reasons.
But even Jennifer Rubin, the conservative Washington Post blogger who
broke the story of the resignation and who later was contacted by
"senior officials from the Romney campaign and respected Republicans
not on the campaign" who said they tried to persuade Grenell to stay,
doesn't seem to be buying it. She's the only one who appears to have
been in contact with Grenell himself, having received a statement from
him, in which he pointed to "the hyper-partisan discussion of personal
issues" as his reason for resigning.
After referring to the claims of the campaign senior officials, Rubin notes:
During the two weeks after Grenell's hiring was announced the Romney
campaign did not put Grenell out to comment on national security
matters and did not use him on a press foreign policy conference call.
Despite the controversy in new media and in conservative circles,
there was no public statement of support for Grenell by the campaign
and no supportive social conservatives were enlisted to calm the
waters.
If that reflects the sentiments of Grenell himself, it means he
believes that they had thrown him under bus from the beginning, as
soon as the criticisms started. In resigning, he was simply crawling
to the curb.
This entire fiasco presents a hard truth to our media, which seems to
want to think otherwise: Mitt Romney is anti-gay, no matter what he
supposedly truly believes (and can we please not forget he's a devout
Mormon?). He can't be anything else and keep the support of his party
because the chasm that separates the GOP base from the rest of America
is now bigger than the Grand Canyon. The Ohio Arts Company does not
make an Etch A Sketch large enough for this. The GOP has gone so far
to the extremes that it's preposterous to think Romney or anyone can
pull it back anytime soon. You thought Rush Limbaugh was something?
Meet gay-bashing, Muslim-bashing, immigrant-bashing,
you-name-it-bashing Bryan Fischer, today crowned as the new king of
the GOP.
Follow Michelangelo Signorile on Twitter: www.twitter.com/msignorile
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/the-richard-grenell-fiasc_b_1470145.html?ref=elections-2012
--
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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