Rick Santorum, Sexologist

He can't stop. Rick Santorum just can't stop making an utter fool out of himself.

A few years ago he had this to say about the recent sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. (Rick is himself a practicing Catholic.):

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.

And in the Boston Globe a few days ago, there's this. He's defending his characterization of Boston as the "center of the storm" of sexual abuse.:

Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.

''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.

''If you have a world view that I'm describing [about Boston]. . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.

And so what Senator Man-on-dog is saying is that the perpetrators of the sexual abuse are not completely to blame for their crimes. It's Boston's "liberal" social attitudes!

There's moer take a look at this:

A 2003 investigation by Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly found that at least 1,000 children were abused by more than 235 priests and church workers between 1940 and 2000. The archdiocese has paid out more than $120 million to settle abuse claims since 1950.

Reilly, a Democrat, also criticized Santorum. "For him to equate liberalism with child abuse is disgraceful. It's embarrassing for him and embarrassing to his party and his party should disown him," he said.

No wonder he's still lagging in the polls.

Embarrassment all around.