Johnathon Cohn, The New Republic
Who is the real Mitt Romney? … excerpts
Right-wingers protested the hiring of Grenell from the get-go and, instead of backing Grenell publicly, the Romney campaign sidelined him. Last week, according to reporting by Andrew Sullivan, campaign officials specifically instructed Grenell to remain silent on a call about foreign policy—even though it was a call Grenell had helped to organize and would have, under normal circumstances, helped to lead. It was not the first such incident and Grenell, apparently convinced the campaign had undermined his authority, to step down. …. a Republican adviser told the Times. “They believed (Grinnel being gay) was a nonissue. But they didn’t want to confront the religious right.”
That silence speaks volumes, because what matters ultimately is not what Romney or his advisers think but how they act. When Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts, he made overtures to the gay community, telling the newspaper Bay Windows, “I think extremists who would force their views on the party and try to shape the party are making a mistake.” But, as my colleague Tim Noah pointed out on Wednesday, those extremists are shaping the party right now—and Romney, clearly, is not about to stop them:
It would be unfortunate if Romney were able to persuade people that the GOP isn’t captive to its extremists, because even if Romney showed some bravery on this issue it wouldn’t really be true in general. Not to put too fine a point on it, if you are gay you’d have to be out of your mind to support today’s Republican party.
…. Romney’s cagey statements means that, in theory, he can be anything to anybody.