AP
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he wanted an openly gay spokesman who resigned from the campaign to stay on.

In an interview Friday 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 spokesman, Richard Grenell, a “capable individual” and said many senior campaign aides urged him not to leave.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

At an appearance at the Values Voter Summit last October, Fehrnstrom said Romney “denounced some of the poisonous language that was being used by some of the same people” who criticized Grenell. At that conference, Romney criticized figures on the religious right who were attacking his Mormon faith, including evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress. At the time, Jeffress supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was running against Romney in the Republican presidential primary.

Romney also criticized Friday’s unemployment report showing a drop to 8.1 percent in April, from 8.2 percent in March. That was partly because more people had stopped looking for work and the number of jobs created was lower than some economists had expected.

“It’s a terrible and very disappointing report this morning. Clearly the American people are wondering why this recovery isn’t happening faster, why it’s taking years and years for the recovery to occur, and we seem to be slowing down, not speeding up. This is not progress,” he said. “This is not good news this morning.”

Nouvel Obs
Un gay dans l’équipe de Romney. L’expérience aura vite tourné court. Ancien protégé de GeorgeW. Bush qui l’avait nommé en 2001 porte-parole de la mission américaine aux Nations Unies, Richard Grenell s’était surtout fait connaître pour ses saillies réactionnaires. En 2002, alors que l’ambassadeur mexicain conserve un peu trop longtemps le micro, il aurait lâché: “Qui se soucie de ce que pensent les Mexicains ?” Expérience, compétence, orientation néoconservatrice, “Ric” avait donc le profil idéal pour ce poste de porte-parole du candidat républicain Mitt Romney, en charge des questions de politique étrangère.
Une “nouvelle aventure” de courte durée

Le 19 avril, jour de sa nomination, il annonce la nouvelle sur son blog en titrant “ma nouvelle aventure”. Les attaques des républicains les plus conservateurs ne se font pas attendre. Quelques minutes après l’annonce de sa nomination, Bryan Fischer porte-parole de l’association des familles américaines (AFA) le qualifie de “‘sex-obsessed’ homosexual” (homo, obsédé sexuel). Le très chrétien Matthew J. Franck, lui reproche son militantisme et fait mine de “s’interroger”:
Supposons que Barack Obama se prononce, comme Richard Grenell le réclame, en faveur du mariage homosexuel. Quelle position défendra-t-il publiquement, celle de Romney ou celle d’Obama? ”

Certains proches de Mitt Romney, comme le porte-parole Andrea Saul, lui apportent discrètement leur soutien. “Nous avons embauché Ric Grenell parce qu’il était la personne la mieux qualifiée pour le poste et possède une vaste expérience en tant que représentant des États-Unis à l’ONU”. Mais aucun commentaire quant aux attaques relatives à la sexualité du porte-parole.

Dès son arrivée, ses adversaires obtiendront une première victoire. Pour eux, la meilleure façon “d’apaiser la polémique” qui entoure sa nomination, serait de le laisser dans l’ombre “quelques temps”. Consigne lui est donc donnée de ne pas s’exprimer jusqu’au 1er mai. Pour être sorti de l’ombre, il est remis au placard. Difficile à digérer pour le quadragénaire habitué à ne pas garder sa langue dans la poche.

L’homme au tempérament impétueux bouillonne de rester en coulisse, d’autant plus que la période est chargée en actualité internationale: visite d’Hillary Clinton en Chine et déplacement surprise de Barack Obama en Irak… Mais selon certain de ses proches “Ric vivait de plus en plus mal la situation”. Pour lui: une humiliation permanente. “Il voyait sa crédibilité auprès des journalistes s’éroder de jour en jour” ajoute cette même source, interrogée par le “New York Times”.
“Une faute directe”

Dès la fin de semaine dernière, il annonce à Kevin D. Williamson et Eric Fehrnstrom, les deux lieutenants de Mitt Romney, son intention de démissionner. Certains tentent mollement de le retenir. “Nous avons été choqué, la tempête était passée”, commente sous couvert d’anonymat l’un d’entre eux. Sur ce dossier la discrétion est de mise. Alors que la primaire républicaine arrive à son terme, Mitt Romney ne veut surtout pas se mettre à dos la branche la plus conservatrice de son électorat.

Le 1er mai, il annonce officiellement sa démission. Une victoire pour l’Association des familles américaines (AFA) qui se targue d’avoir eu sa tête : “En aucun cas, Mitt Romney ne peut escompter mettre un militant homosexuel dans une position de quelque importance dans son équipe de campagne”, a expliqué leur porte-parole Bryan Fischer. “Il s’agit d’une faute directe”, commente Christopher Barron, un des fondateurs de GOProud, un groupe gay et républicain à Washington. Le ton de la campagne est donné.

Ontopmag
Michele Bachmann has criticized Ron Paul and Mitt Romney on gay marriage in a final pitch to social conservatives in early caucus state Iowa, The New York Times reported.

During a Council Bluffs appearance, Bachmann attempted to use her record opposing marriage equality and abortion to distance herself from her GOP presidential rivals.

“Mitt Romney has defended gay marriage and even signed marriage licenses for same-sex couples and Ron Paul doesn’t believe the government should protect the institution of marriage,” Bachmann said. “I have a record of defending life, marriage and the family and I’ll protect them as president of the United States.”

(Related: Ron Paul: Government should ‘butt out’ of gay marriage.)

Bachmann, who trails her rivals in the state after winning the Iowa straw poll in August, and Rick Santorum have previously leveled the charge at Romney that he helped advance gay marriage.

Santorum said during a GOP debate earlier this month that then-Governor Romney was faced with a choice after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that barring gay men and lesbians from marrying was unconstitutional.

“So Governor Romney was faced with a choice: Go along with the court or go along with the constitution and the statute. He chose the court and ordered people to issue gay marriage licenses. And went beyond that. He personally, as governor, issued gay marriage licenses.”

In rebutting the charge, Romney described Santorum’s retelling as a “novel understanding” of events.

“The Supreme Court of Massachusetts determined that under our constitution same-sex marriage was required,” Romney said. “And the idea that that somehow that was up to me to make a choice as to whether we had it or not was a little unusual.”