CNN: Romney Advisor Leaves Campaign Amid Controversy

Hey, If I've said it once, I've said it a million times:  Whatever filters the Republicans used to keep firmly fixed on their activities to keep Americans from seeing how crazy they are have completely fallen off.


Two weeks ago, the Romney campaign announced the hiring of Richard Grenell as a foreign policy advisor, a man who used to work for Bush II.  Within the week, it was revealed that Grenell is openly gay, and the Romney campaign really didn't talk about it much.  Liberals wondered about how the religious right would react.


Well, now we know - Grenell has been forced out, and it was precisely because of his sexual orientation.


Grenell noted in a blog post, "While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign," Grenell said in the statement.

He added: "I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team."

Emphasis mine.

Look at that statement again.

Apparently, Romney had no issue with his foreign policy advisor being gay, and hired the guy anyway.  Actually, that's good news - Romney has a heart, and isn't some rogue loose cannon - at least about gay issues.  Right?

But it's bad news for the Republicans this year, because as soon as they heard it, the pressure started and built to where Romney had no choice but to force Grenell out - or ask him to take one for the team.  Are the Republicans crazy?  Are they intent on making themselves look so crazy, so off the wall and out of touch with the American people that they have no sense of, if not decency, at least political savvy of some sort?

It would have been easy to just ignore it, pretend they never heard it, and they could have garnered at least a few votes from folks in the center who would have seen that gesture as proof that Romney, at least, was a decent sort, even if he is rich.  But, no, that would have put them between a rock and a hard place, because ignoring it would have angered their far right socially conservative base, yet, at the same time, the whole thing makes Romney look like a weak, flip-flopping fool.

Oh, wait...