In brief: Romney spokesman quits campaign

Washington – Mitt Romney’s national security spokesman resigned Tuesday after critics questioned his conservatism because he is gay.

Richard Grenell announced he had decided to leave Romney’s campaign shortly after he was hired in late April. Grenell, who is openly gay, previously worked for neoconservative former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, as well as other foreign policy hawks.

“My ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyperpartisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign,” Grenell said in a prepared statement.

A series of critics on the right had suggested Grenell’s sexuality would present problems for the Romney campaign.

Act would eliminate ‘lunatic’ language

Washington – A move is under way in Congress to strike any reference to “lunatic” in federal law in an effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness.

“Federal law should reflect the 21st-century understanding of mental illness and disease,” Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in introducing the 21st Century Language Act with Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. “The continued use of this pejorative term has no place in the U.S. code.”

The idea for the measure, Conrad said, came from a constituent seeking his help in removing “this outdated and inappropriate language” from federal law.

Ohio in 2007 removed words such as lunatic, idiot and insane from its code.

Judge OKs trial for Strauss-Kahn

New York – A hotel maid’s sexual assault lawsuit against Dominique Strauss-Kahn can go forward to trial, a judge ruled Tuesday, rebuffing the former International Monetary Fund leader’s diplomatic-immunity claim.

Bronx state Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon’s ruling kept alive the civil case that emerged from a May 2011 hotel-room encounter that also spurred now-dismissed criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn, then a French presidential hopeful.

The housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, 33, said Strauss-Kahn, 63, tried to rape her when she arrived to clean his Manhattan hotel suite. Strauss-Kahn has denied doing anything violent during the encounter.