News broke Tuesday that Richard Grenell had stepped down from his job as national security and foreign policy spokesperson for the Romney campaign only a couple of weeks after the appointment had been announced. The reason: Push back from conservatives because Grenell is openly gay. Now the media is digging a little more deeply into the issue and wondering if Mitt Romney’s campaign also failed to take conservative opposition into account when they hired Grenell.

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Richard Grenell has stepped down as national security and foreign policy spokesperson for the Mitt Romney campaign only a couple of weeks after taking the job. Grenell cited opposition from anti-gay conservatives as the reason for his resignation. Grenell is openly gay.

His statement, from The Washington Post‘s Right Turn blog, is available after the jump. The blog cites coverage in outlets like National Review and Daily Caller as part of the conservative backlash against Grenell’s appointment. Because of the criticism, the Romney campaign kept Grenell from doing his job. He is also a partner as Los Angeles-based Capitol Media Partners.

In his short time with the campaign, Grenell also (rightfully) faced criticism for some of his recent tweets. He wrote that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was  ”starting to look like Madeline Albright” and advised MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow to “take a breath and put on a necklace.” The tweets have since been removed.

*Updated after the jump.

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Mitt Romney has a new national security and foreign policy spokesperson: Richard Grenell, the director of comms and public diplomacy at the U.N. during the George W. Bush administration. Since then, he’s been a partner at Capitol Media Partners in Los Angeles. The firm says he will continue in that role while advising the Romney campaign.

Nadina Guglielmetti (right) has joined Kaplow as SVP of digital, social media, and consumer strategy. She’ll work with the MD and chief digital officer David Richeson to manage the KDrive practice group. She was previously the VP of digital strategies at Waggener Edstrom.

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Adam Belmar, former deputy comms director for President George W. Bush and former senior producer of This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Good Morning America, has joined Quinn Gillespie & Associates as director. In this role, he will serve in a leadership position at Quinn Gillespie Communications, a division of QGA. Previously, he was VP for comms at R&R Partners.

Brad Chase has been appointed partner at Capitol Media Partners, a public affairs firm. Chase and founding partner Richard Grenell (who was the longest serving U.S. spokesperson in U.N. history) will lead new business efforts. Previously, Chase was director of comms for DaVita Inc.

Business Wire has appointed Tom Mulgrew as VP of agency relations. Mulgrew has been with the company since 1985, opening the Nashville office and three offices in Texas. He also scaled Mount Kilimanjaro during a hiatus in 2008. (Wow!)

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