Romney administration: no openly gay need apply

If you're an "independent," or a moderate Republican who figured that now that the primaries are over, Romney will be able to move to the center on social issues, your view has  nowprobably changed.

What we know now is that Romney is helpless in the face of such pressure. In office, he will be a tool of the furthest right in his party. In fact, he has much, much less space to maneuver in than any president since George H. W. Bush. Because the base doesn't trust him, he has to be super-right-wing on issues like homosexual equality, climate change, more tax cuts, more defense spending, abortion, and birth control.

 And Romney's silence on this is deafening.

Richard Grenell, an openly gay and longtime Republican foreign policy spokesman hired last month by Mitt Romney’s campaign, abruptly resigned on Tuesday after antigay elements in the party criticized his appointment and some Republican advisers said Mr. Grenell had been sidelined by the campaign during a busy foreign policy week.

The Romney campaign issued a statement saying that it had sought to keep Mr. Grenell from quitting. And according to some Republicans, while Mr. Grenell’s sexual orientation was not an issue for the campaign, the Romney team had cut Mr. Grenell out of the loop on some issues after feeling a surprising pressure from some social conservatives.