Romney aide scrubs online rants on women

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WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- An aide to likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney zapped controversial online posts about women after media representatives zeroed in on his jibes.

Richard Grenell, an aide to former President George W. Bush tapped by Romney last week to be his foreign policy spokesman, also apologized for his remarks he said were meant to be humorous but could be interpreted as hateful, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

Republican operatives were making hay of a remark Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen made in which she suggested Romney's wife Ann has little knowledge of what working mothers go through because she has never "worked a day in her life."

Among the hundreds of posts on his Twitter page was one about first lady Michelle Obama, an exercising enthusiast who heads a national campaign against childhood obesity, whom he said was "sweating on the East Room carpet" after working out.

Grenell also slammed GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich's wife, Callista, asking if her "hair snaps on."

Grenell apologized for the comments Friday, saying he would remove the offensive posts, the Daily News said.

"My tweets were written to be tongue-in-cheek and humorous but I can now see how they can also be hurtful," Grenell told Politico Friday after he was questioned about his less-than-flattering remarks on women. "I didn't mean them that way and will remove them from Twitter. I apologize for any hurt they caused."

The Huffington Post said about 800 tweets were scrubbed from Grenell's online accounts between Friday and Sunday.