Mitt’s Gay Problem

Posted by Bob Lord

My favorite host these days is Chris Matthews, for no reason other than his intense dislike of my buddy Mitt. He’s really incredible on this front. Every sentence he utters when talking about Mitt drips with disdain. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.

Curiously, he left out an obvious point when speaking about Richard Grenell, who supposedly was pushed out of the Romney campaign for being openly gay. On both yesterday’s and today’s show, he made the valid point that this was Mitt’s opportunity to make a clear statement supporting Grenell, that he wanted him back on the team, and that he wouldn’t tolerate intolerance in his campaign. He could have, but he didn’t.

Matthews’ public conclusion was that Mitt was craven to hard right conservatives and didn’t have the gumption to stand up to them. But is that all that was going on? After all, the LDS Church and its members are far and away the largest funders of anti-gay ballot initiatives. So, was Mitt’s failure to speak out a reflection of his being craven to hard right conservatives of all stripes, or was it more a Mormon-specific thing?

I’m guessing this possibility was not lost on Matthews, but the LDS angle on this is dangerous territory and there really didn’t add much in the context of Mittt’s Grenell fiasco. At some point in the coming months, however, it seems like questions related to the Mormon connection are fair game. After all, Kennedy had to assure us that his Catholicism was not going to impact his policies. It seems like we’re entitled to know whether Mitt will be willing to stand up to his gay intolerant church if elected. Unless of course he’s going to revert back to being “more pro-gay than Ted Kennedy.”