Nomorum

Ah, Rick Santorum, just an endless source of head-smacking quotes. If only I could find it funny...

Grading on a curve

I'm afraid that Josh has a point here. Getting rid of Santorum really mobilized PA voters, but now an even scarier guy, Toomey, is in the race and barely making waves in either the media coverage or the sense of widespread Democratic ennui. I know the Tea Partiers have been claiming the Crazy Right mantel, but that doesn't mean that these Club for Growth creeps should start being viewed as moderate!

What I believe in this microsecond is what counts...

Senator Rick Santorum professes uncertainty about whether Intelligent Design belongs in the classroom...
(?!)

(via Atrios)

Removing any doubt

Santorum goes on the record as saying that birth-control is harmful to women and society, and he doesn't support it. I somehow suspect he's missed the majority viewpoint on that one... (as though the patronizing moralism weren't off-putting enough)

(via Atrios)

Update: Medley has more to say on this, perhaps more productive than my silent apoplexy...

Presidential speculations

Well, Pennsylvania Democrats may be afraid to take him at his word, but apparently nationally prominent Republicans are not: Santorum's announcement that he won't try for President in 2008 has stirred the pot of other potential condenders who might benefit from the lack of competition for his blocs or primary voters.

(via Edico)

Update: Well that didn't take long! Whew, the room has stopped spinning.

Stewart v. Santorum

Except that it wasn't. I mean, Jon Stewart made no bones about the fact that they disagreed on almost everything ("ok first, some common ground: ice-cream is delicious!"), but otherwise he was professional and nonconfrontational, taking an "it's amazing that we can both be decent folks and just have such incompatible world views" approach. I'd have liked to see him push a bit more, especially in places where Santorum has ruffled a lot of feathers, like by claiming that women who work outside the home are selfish. But none of that -- just a little about his incomprehension at the dismissal of gays and their families, and then some softballs about "what do Santorum critics get wrong?" and the like. Sigh.

The scariest part to me was that Santorum looked pretty sane, pretty good-humored and thoughtful. Despite his being one of my Senators, I hadn't heard him speak before, and the worst I could say of his performance was that he looked a bit goody-goody, used the word "virtue" anachronistically often, and had helmet hair -- no Zell Miller-style frothing at the mouth to give his extremism away. Makes me think that convincing voters to distrust him may be mighty hard going...

Haven't found any online links to the video or transcript, but will post such a thing if I find it.

Update: a quick summary provided here. Must be something better soon. This blogger points out that Rick said overtly that he thought governments should legislate ideals; there are some unfortunate precedents for that...

Update 2: belatedly, the video, a partial transcript, and some more rants.

It takes a strong stomach

One gets the feeling that Echidne of the Snakes will not be first in line to buy Santorum's new book . . .

Santorum is a two-faced fuckwit. In any sane society we wouldn't even know about this guy. In this one, he is harboring ambitions to run for the president of the United States.

heh. Lemme know when that sane society shows up.
There's some more citational and critical analysis in there too.

But of course

Apparently Santorum actually thinks that "hypocrisy can be a social good" -- guess that makes sense of a lot of his actions . . .

(via Atrios)

Remind me why this is surprising, again?

Santorum has written a book, and excerpts reveal that he is a jerk. Shock and dismay on many fronts.

Santorum blames priest pedophila on liberalism

Rick Santorum has an article coming out in Catholic Online in which he bemoans the recent clergy scandals and hopes that they will lead to a re-examination and revitalization of the faith. In it he seems rather comfortable placing the blame for this and other problems outside the church:

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

In fact, he calls on Catholic seminaries to cleanse themselves of liberalism, as well as on the Catholic church as a whole to turn away from its evil influences (including Vatican II-uinfluenced Cardinals).

A new hierarchy must similarly fight against an array of "isms"-moral relativism, cultural liberalism-inside and outside of the Church.

Amazing how even the failings of the conservative mainstream and its leaders can somehow all be laid at the feet of the liberal elite and turned into new weapons for nationwide eliminationist crusades!

(via pal Bill H.)

Update: this article is actually from 2002 -- my bad for not catching that. Still, I doubt his feelings have changed in this matter; it's just been bumped from the news by other issues.

A two-fer

That is, a story with both a high creepy factor and a good dose of potential hypocrisy. It's all about Rick Santorum and the framed fetus picture he keeps with his other family shots in his office...

In touch with the common pulse

Rick Santorum declares childcare funding unimportant to most people in America. I hope that the echo you just heard was the collapse of his last chance for re-election. (but, oh! the short memory of the electorate!)

(via the Daou Report)

Santorum goes after the working stiff

Santorum is pushing some new legislation on minimum wage, which appears to raise the base rate substantially, but actually radically decreases the number of companies who are required to pay their workers at minimum wage, and also loosens workplace protections and requirements for overtime pay.

The upshot: while 1.2 million workers could qualify for a minimum wage increase, another 6.8 million workers, who work in companies with revenues between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year, would lose their current minimum wage protection.

And an even larger number of businesses, those with revenues under $7 million, would be exempt from fines under a range of other safety, health, pension and other labor laws. Essentially, the realm of unregulated sweatshops would be expanded and legalized under Santorum's bill. . . .

Amazing. PA is one of the states considering raising its minimum wage above the federal minimum, something Santorum's bill would also disallow. I hope that this will be another prime weapon to turn back against him in 2006! He may be winning love in DC, but I don't think he's warming hearts at home...

(via dailyKos)