MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Romney’ foreign policy statesman resigns hounded by anti-gay conservatives

Richard Grenell had been incorporated as spokesperson in April

Republican Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman, Richard Grenell, has resigned after only a brief stint on Romney's presidential campaign.

The Washington Post reported that the openly gay Grenell had been hounded from the campaign by anti-gay conservatives.

Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said in a statement that Grenell, hired last month, decided to leave for personal reasons that he did not specify.

“We are disappointed that Ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons. We wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill,” Rhoades said.

The Post's “Right Turn” column quoted a statement from Grenell that said his ability to “speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign.”

Before joining Romney's campaign, Grenell was a prolific -and inflammatory- voice on Twitter, posting biting commentary on subjects ranging from Newt Gingrich's weight to Michelle Obama exercising in the White House.

By the time he joined the campaign, many of his most provocative musings on Twitter have been deleted. He had been spokesman of the US mission to the United Nations during George W. Bush's presidency.

Mr. Grenell has spent the last fourteen years as the primary communications advisor for US public officials at the local, state, federal and international levels. Grenell has advised four US Ambassadors: John D. Negroponte, John C. Danforth, John R. Bolton and Zalmay Khalilzad on the formulation and articulation of United States policy at the United Nations. Grenell was also appointed by John C. Danforth in 2004 as an Alternative Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations Security Council with full voting rights and privileges.