Romney Adviser Comes Out, Resigns From Campaign

via Cameron Joseph The Hill’s Ballot Box

Richard Grenell has resigned his role as a foreign policy spokesman for the Romney campaign following criticism of Romney from some social conservatives for having a gay man on his campaign.

“We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons,” Romney Campaign Manager Matt Rhoades told The Hill in a statement. “We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill.”

A few leading social conservatives including the American Family Association had attacked Romney for adding Grenell to the campaign, and some bloggers including one at the influential National Review questioned whether he would stay loyal to Romney if President Obama announced support for same-sex marriage.

He’d also been criticized for a series of tweets making fun of Democratic women as well as the Gingrich campaign.

After doing little on-record work since he was hired, Grenell left the campaign this week.

“I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the foreign policy and national security spokesman,” Grenell said in a statement obtained by the Washington 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.”

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