April 24, 2012 | Sex & Society

Mitt Romney's gay advisor comes with wicked wit

It is pretty much a given that Mitt Romney will be leading the Republicans in this year's battle for the White House. And this means he needs to pull back from the far-right of the party if he hopes to be President.

Even so, when Romney - who signed NOM's pledge to fight gay marriage - named openly gay Richard Grenell as his national security and foreign policy spokesperson, it caught many people by surprise.

Blogger Andrew Sullivan saw the move as tremendously positive. ”For Romney to have an openly gay spokesman is a real outreach to gay Republicans, a subtle signal to moderates, and the Santorum faction’s reaction will be worth noting,” he said.

Others weren't so happy. Bryan Fischer of the designated hate-group American Family Association immediately denounced Grenell as an “out and loud gay,” claiming the appointment was a “message to the pro-family community” to “drop dead.”

Fischer later tweeted: “Romney’s gay hire would serve in his administration in national security… You want to tell me there’s no Secret Service-type risk here?”  - implying that Grenell might soon be hosting gay escorts while on duty.

But Grenell's sexuality is quickly being overshadowed by some major baggage. He seems to suffer from Foot-in-Mouth Tweet Syndrome. Over 800 tweets were deleted from his account, but several, coming off as a slightly sexist, have been archived.

In the past, he tweeted that ”Hillary is starting to look like Madeleine Albright." and that Rachel Madow from MSNBC should “take a breath and wear a necklace.” He seemed particularly interested in Newt Gingrich's wife once asking ”Do you think Callista [Gingrich]’s hair snaps on?” and questioned if she could even speak.

Funny? Harmless? Perhaps. Except when you've become part of a campaign to elect the next President. Maddow wondered whether ”a long string of really nasty, sexist tweets about Callista Gingrich’s appearance might be alienating to people who might otherwise consider voting for Mr. Romney.” Good question.

"My personal twitter feed was written before I joined the Romney campaign," Grenell said in a statement. "Some tweets were meant to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous. Regrettably, I can now see how they can also be hurtful. I didn't mean them that way and removed them from Twitter. I sincerely apologize for any hurt they caused."

We can only guess at some of the choice insults contained in those 800 deleted tweets. Perhaps more than could be dismissed with a simple apology.

Romney appoints a gay man as foreign policy spokesperson [PinkNews]

New Romney spokesman deleted inflammatory tweets [Chicago Tribune]