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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / Hush, Hush, Keep It Down Now

Hush, Hush, Keep It Down Now

by @heymistermix.com|  May 3, 20128:34 am| 40 Comments

This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights

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The Grenell story lives another day:

It was the biggest moment yet for Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team: a conference call last Thursday, dialed into by dozens of news outlets from around the globe, to dissect and denounce President’s Obama record on national security.

But Richard Grenell, the political strategist who helped organize the call and was specifically hired to oversee such communications, was conspicuously absent, or so everyone thought.

It turned out he was at home in Los Angeles, listening in, but stone silent and seething. A few minutes earlier, a senior Romney aide had delivered an unexpected directive, according to several people involved in the call.

“Ric,” said Alex Wong, a policy aide, “the campaign has requested that you not speak on this call.” Mr. Wong added, “It’s best to lay low for now.”

The whole thing is a portrait of a campaign that’s piss-pants scared of the right wing of their party. Santorum didn’t win the nomination, but he’s clearly in charge.

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Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    Handy

    May 3, 2012 at 8:36 am

    Rmoney want to make inroads to the LGBT vote.

    Maybe he should offer them car elevators because his outreach seems more like a smack down.

  2. 2.

    c u n d gulag

    May 3, 2012 at 8:40 am

    Typical.

    On a conference call, gay people can not only not be seen, but shouldn’t be heard, either.

    Log Cabin R’s, what say you, dumbasses?

  3. 3.

    Scott S.

    May 3, 2012 at 8:42 am

    Someone ask Grennell if the money is still all that matters, or if maybe he’d care for a little fucking respect, too. ‘Cause he’s gotta know by now that he’ll never get it from the GOP.

  4. 4.

    Irving

    May 3, 2012 at 8:43 am

    Seven more months of this while the MSM pretends it’s a horse race. Just shoot me.

  5. 5.

    Keith

    May 3, 2012 at 8:43 am

    Can’t wait for him to have to answer to all of this shit.

  6. 6.

    honus

    May 3, 2012 at 8:45 am

    The guy worked for John Bolton. Anybody that craven and stupid deserves what he gets.

  7. 7.

    Kirbster

    May 3, 2012 at 8:46 am

    So, the Romney plan for the next five months is to react each day by dissecting and denouncing everything the President says and does. Talk about whiny and tedious…

  8. 8.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    May 3, 2012 at 8:47 am

    And still nearly 50% of the voting public will end up voting for these jackasses.

    Though that still concerns me less than the idea that the GOP will still own things on the state-level once it’s all said and done, or the idea of Congress becoming even more of a solid GOP obstructionist bulwark.

  9. 9.

    deep

    May 3, 2012 at 8:47 am

    And yet Grenell’s still unabashedly Republican! Hasn’t he figured it out now? His whole party is morally bankrupt.

  10. 10.

    Svensker

    May 3, 2012 at 8:54 am

    @deep:

    He’s a war mongering neo-con. Let him stay with the GOP, please. We don’t need any more hawks in the Dems.

  11. 11.

    amk

    May 3, 2012 at 8:57 am

    Shorter mittbot – “I’m running for prezinent, for pete’s sake”

    @honus: Yup, Karma is such a sweet beeyotch. Especially towards rethugs.

  12. 12.

    Merp

    May 3, 2012 at 8:57 am

    “The whole thing is a portrait of a campaign that’s piss-pants scared of the right wing of their party.”

    I don’t think you can claim this in good conscience.

    The magic underwear absorbs the piss before it reaches the pants.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 3, 2012 at 8:59 am

    @honus:

    While this may be true, the fact is, he worked for John Bolton, who is one of the heroes of the wingtards.

    You’d think that this fact alone would give him cred that being gay could not nullify.

    But purity is the true god of the wingtards. Grennell’s tainted, no matter how politically correct his foreign policy
    credentials and positions are. The ghey nullifies all. He is to be disrespected and shunned by all right thinking Republicans.

    Why do gay men INSIST on thinking they’ll be treated with any dignity or respect as they’re put on the trains to Pat Robertson’s Vernichtungslager for their kind?

  14. 14.

    deep

    May 3, 2012 at 8:59 am

    @Svensker: Yeah, well I’m hoping this incident helps him realize that killing brown foreigners isn’t such a good idea after all.

  15. 15.

    ericblair

    May 3, 2012 at 9:02 am

    @Kirbster:

    So, the Romney plan for the next five months is to react each day by dissecting and denouncing everything the President says and does. Talk about whiny and tedious…

    So his plan is to trail around after Obama and “coulda-woulda-shoula” every day on a telecon? That’s leadership?

    That’ll work great. Because everyone loves these coulda-woulda-shoulda people snapping at their heels at work or at home. Right now, Rmoney looks like your typical rich asshole boss, and he wants to make it clear he’s not a boss of anything, so he’s just a rich asshole.

  16. 16.

    brent

    May 3, 2012 at 9:05 am

    It turned out he was at home in Los Angeles, listening in, but stone silent and seething.

    Well what does he have to be angry about really? These are his people. The political operatives he chooses to go out there and represent. He has done what he can to make sure such people are in a position to tell him to shut the fuck up. No sense crying about it now.

  17. 17.

    amk

    May 3, 2012 at 9:08 am

    twitterdom

    CORRECTION: We had to get the F out of Grenfell

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    May 3, 2012 at 9:14 am

    Willard is a pansy muthafucka.

    plain and simple.

  19. 19.

    lamh35

    May 3, 2012 at 9:15 am

    @c u n d gulag: Tweety had a segment on this with a guy from the HRC and from LCR. The guy from LCR seemed to try to go out of his way NOT to call the R-Money campaign the cowards they were. He seemed more keen to try not to burn his bridges with the campaign than he was to defend his “friend” (kept saying Ric was his friend) honor. Tweety was in rare form yesterday though, so he didn’t let the dude cop-out.

    Here’s the clip: Romney aide quits after pressure from anti-gay conservatives

    Chris Matthews talks with R. Clarke Cooper, President of Log Cabin Republicans, and Brian Moulton from the Human Rights Campaign about Richard Grenell, who resigned as Mitt Romney’s foreign policy spokesman just two weeks into the job, after a furor sparked by social conservatives.

  20. 20.

    MattF

    May 3, 2012 at 9:17 am

    So…

    1) Romney campaign insults ‘X’ (where X = gay, female, latino, working-class, canine-owning, etc).
    2) All ‘X’ quit Romney campaign.
    3) Romney campaign gets no questions about ‘X’ from media, hears no complaints from ‘X’ in campaign (because there aren’t any).
    4) Therefore insulting ‘X’ didn’t actually happen, and is just partisan DFHs making stuff up.
    5) In Heaven, everything is fine.

  21. 21.

    pk

    May 3, 2012 at 9:38 am

    I think gays, blacks or hispanics who work for republicans think that when the purges come they will somehow be spared. I have no sympathy for this moron. He thought as long as he was one of the bullies, participated in the evil war, made fun of women like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton, told all the knee slapping ethnic jokes, all was good. Turned out they were not laughing with him, but at him. Karma!
    I hope that the gay community has enough sense not to embrace this idiot.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    May 3, 2012 at 9:45 am

    This may be just me, but I think writing stupid, childish insults in a public forum and then having to conduct an embarrassing, panicked scrub operation really undercuts the whole “serious foreign policy and diplomatic advisor” role.

    He’s a real charmer, and so bright! Yeah, boy. Hire that one, Mitt.

  23. 23.

    gene108

    May 3, 2012 at 9:50 am

    Saw a Mitt Romney clip about him talking about foreign policy and America’s place in the world. He kept repeating America will be the leader of the Free World. The term Free World kept getting tossed around.

    Doesn’t he realize the Cold War has ended and no one really uses the term Free World anymore?

  24. 24.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    May 3, 2012 at 9:50 am

    Mitt Romney, building a closet to the future.

  25. 25.

    amk

    May 3, 2012 at 10:03 am

    @gene108: No one gives a shit anymore about good ole america either. Countries are moving on, with or without us of a. Rethugs are still trying to sell an old meme that everyone has forgotten. Let’s see how many stupid ‘murkans are still left to but it.

  26. 26.

    Ken

    May 3, 2012 at 10:13 am

    I think it’s important that the Republican base notices the phrase “for now”, to remind them the Etch-a-Sketch will say anything to get into the White House. What’s the best way to play up “for now”?

  27. 27.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    May 3, 2012 at 10:31 am

    VICTORY!

    Because nothing says “LEADERSHIP” like throwing your hand-picked staff to the wolves whenever things become “inconvenient”.

    Anyone on the Romney team with half a brain should now realize that they could be next. Good luck attracting quality staff, Mitt.

  28. 28.

    chopper

    May 3, 2012 at 10:31 am

    The whole thing is a portrait of a campaign that’s piss-pants scared of the right wing of their party that can’t find their ass with two hands, a map, a sherpa guide and a homosexual dwarf.

    fixed.

  29. 29.

    Jeff Schmitz

    May 3, 2012 at 10:35 am

    Hey Ric (and the rest of the Log Cabin Republicans):

    Don’t you get it? Your party hates you. THEY FUCKING HATE YOU. They want you to go away. They wish you never existed.

    But keep hanging out with them anyway. Maybe they’ll come around!

  30. 30.

    geg6

    May 3, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Heh. Rmoney and Sanitorium are meeting today here in Pittsburgh in, as the local tv station put it, an undisclosed location.

    I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that one. Maybe Rmoney will give Rih Grennell’s scalp.

  31. 31.

    shortstop

    May 3, 2012 at 11:03 am

    @brent: Of course you’re right in every particular, but Grenell clearly suffers from the pan-Republican disease of “Bad Stuff Doesn’t Apply to Me Me Me, and If It Does I’m the World’s Largest Victim EVAR,” and I guess that trumps the lesser rule of “Lie Down with Dogs…”

    BTW, I’ve been too busy to read much this week so not sure if this has been discussed, but Grenell’s vague official statement obnoxiously ignores assigning blame to the GOP with its both-sides-do-it reference to hyperpartisanship. Fucker can feel victimized all he wants, but he’s still such an obedient little foot soldier that he can’t publicly call out his own party for what it did. Loser.

  32. 32.

    The Other Chuck

    May 3, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @gene108:

    Doesn’t he realize the Cold War has ended and no one really uses the term Free World anymore?

    Neil Young is still rocking in it.

  33. 33.

    danimal

    May 3, 2012 at 11:37 am

    Love the song reference….voices carry!

  34. 34.

    jim filyaw

    May 3, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    sullivan says that he “didn’t realize that erik erickson (red state) was a homophobe” but now he does. that admission is astounding as is sullivan’s naiveté. if nothing else is obvious about that narrow minded, pig headed, right wingnut, tub of lard, it is that he is a card carrying bigot.

    note to sullivan: bigots tend to be intolerant.

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 3, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    You go to love Mitten’s thinking; his friends to the evangelical right don’t trust him. So what does Mitt do, to show he’s cool with the Evangelicals? Hires a openly gay spokesman. Talk about playing right into every criticism from the Evangelicals ever made against Romney.

    So the Evangelicals feel Romney is dicking with them and they scream. So Mitt instantly dives for cover and treats Grenell like he has teh gay cooties in a very public way. In one move Mittens confirms to the Evangelicals Grenell hiring was just a cheep shot against them while simultaneously irritats the Log Cabin Republicans, the Neocons and reinforces the mem that Mitt is a weather vane.

    I am beginning to wonder if Romney is just a plant in the Romney campaign from Obama.

  36. 36.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 3, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    The best part is, this won’t actually satisfy the righties. It’s just enough to stop them from screaming for the moment, but it will still leave them pissed at the suspicious outsider who thinks gays are okay. Fucking voter enthusiasm, how does IT work?!

  37. 37.

    RalfW

    May 3, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    It seems to be taking people like James Joyner a very long time to see that the GOP is functionally deranged by gay people.

    This may be an inapt analogy, but it sort of reminds me of George Wallace at the door of the school.

    This case is far less charged in the moment. But its this dug-in, ultra-fearful and uncomprehending attitude that tries to resist change.

    It is a curious feature of human character. Some seem to master their fear, many others are run by it.

  38. 38.

    El Tiburon

    May 3, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    The whole thing is a portrait of a campaign that’s piss-pants scared of the right wing of their party.

    You talking about Obama or Romney?

    see: van Jones, et al etc and so on.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. What the Ric Grenell Episode Tells Us About A Potential Romney Administration « The Cassandra Files says:
    May 3, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    […] Romney team has is sidelined due to the bigoted objections of the likes of Bryan Fischer? I can, because it just happened. Why would anyone believe the same thing wouldn’t happen in a Romney White […]

  2. It’s Not Because You’re Gay, It’s Because Other People Are Mad That You’re Gay | Poison Your Mind says:
    May 3, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    […] Romney then did what he always does– cowered and did what he thought the far right wanted. Some reporting: It was the biggest moment yet for Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team: a conference call last […]

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