October 3, 2006

A Santorum Contradiction

As seen from Boston
Please allow me to offer Senator Rick Santorum a hearty Boston welcome to the world of the depraved.

It wasn't all that long ago when Santorum, a conservative Republican from Pennsylvania, was blaming our entire city and seemingly every resident within it for the Catholic priest pedophile scandal that was unraveling all across the country.

Those were dark days, here and elsewhere, though we were fortunate enough to have someone like Santorum shed a little bit of his moralistic light. Specifically, here's what he wrote:

"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."
I'd forgotten he said that.  The piece continues.
A Santorum spokesman was kind enough to provide even more clarity last year, telling me, "It's an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases. I think that's what the senator was speaking to."

So do I. Priests rape young boys, the church hierarchy hushes it up for years, and academics and other assorted Democrats in Boston are to blame. That fact should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, which I think Santorum may have.
By the way, that was Robert Traynham speaking.

Robert Traynham - there's an ironical joke in there somewhere.
So, of course, I find it surprising -- no, make that shocking -- that the center of the storm has shifted from Boston to, of all places, Capitol Hill, and not just any part of Capitol Hill but specifically the offices of the Republican congressional leadership.

The scandal in Washington so mirrors what's happened in Boston and other Catholic dioceses the nation over to the point of being surreal. A rank-and-file member of an organization does wrong by a minor. The hierarchy, in turn, does nothing. Now, rather than a priest, it's a 52-year-old Republican congressman -- or make that a former congressman, given Mark Foley's resignation on Friday. Foley, by the way, has pulled the Patrick Kennedy defense, checking himself into rehab, as if everyone is supposed to applaud the courage of self-awareness.
Ha.  But the best is yet to come:
Which brings us back to Santorum. How bad are things for him? He's down by 7 to 14 points in recent polls in his reelection bid. And more telling, his campaign website has a section called ``Around the water cooler," in which he tries to debunk common myths about him, among them, that Santorum thinks women shouldn't work, that abortion is like slavery, and that unwed mothers shouldn't go to college. According to his own responses, some of them don't seem to be myths at all.

The guy doesn't need a new strategy, he needs a different personality.
 with a different personality?  What would that be like, exactly?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dirtbag-Dave forgot to mention this when speaking about Santorum, specifically mentioning the "Water Cooler" section. For Dave's convienence, I pasted it here for his readers to comprehend for themselves:

• The Water Cooler on "IT TAKES A FAMILY"

I heard around the water cooler that in Senator Santorum's book, he thinks women should stay home and not be in the workplace.

What the book says:
Page 94

But we parents also have to face the truth. Children of two parents who are working don't need more things. They need us! In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them really don't need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do. Some are working because they think they must buy their kids and themselves more things they "need" -- instead of giving of themselves to their kids. And for some parents, the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home. But in this world, at a time when it is increasingly difficult to raise children well, we should all recognize that our kids really need fewer things and more mom and dad.

The bottom line:

Senator Santorum grew up in a home where his mother was the primary breadwinner, and his wife Karen is an attorney, a nurse, and a published author. In Senator Santorum's offices, more than half of those who work for him are women, and more women then men hold senior positions. For example, four out of the five staff who are legislative assistants, those responsible for working with Rick to craft legislative policy, are women.

Rick believes that due to higher and higher taxes, more and more families are required to have two incomes just to make ends meet. Since 1950, federal taxes have increased exponentially, resulting in one income not going as far as it used to. Rick Santorum has fought to reduce the tax burden on Pennsylvania families so that parents who wish to stay home with their children are able to do so.

Rick Santorum also believes that society has been so focused on professional success that parents are no longer encouraged to stay at home to raise their children. Society should honor and respect women who stay home and raise their children as much as it does those who go out into the work force.

I heard around the water cooler that in Rick Santorum's book, he compared abortion to slavery.

What the book says:
Page 240

...I looked at one of our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the most famous line from the Declaration is, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of HAPPINESS." It is obvious from that sentence that are founders believed both in truth and in a Creator. They also believed that the Creator gave to each human being rights that attached to them simply because they are human beings. The three rights listed are listed in a particular order for a reason. They flow logically: the first is foundational, the second depends on the first, and the third depends on the second and first. In other words, what good is liberty and happiness if you are dead? You must first be alive to enjoy liberty, and the founders understood that man could not truly be happy unless he was both alive and free to pursue his dreams.

So what does this have to do with abortion? Abortion takes these ordered rights and disorders them. Abortion puts the liberty and happiness rights of the mother above the life rights of her child. Liberty or choice and happiness are highly valued rights, and I know that unplanned pregnancies can be life altering and traumatic, but they do not trump the foundational right to life given us by our Creator and made evident to us by reason. This was tried once before in America, when the liberty and happiness rights of the slaveholder were put over the life and liberty rights of the slave. But unlike abortion today, in most states, even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave.

The bottom line:

Both abortion and slavery take an individual and place them under someone else's control. While the context of these two words is very different, both devalue human life. Rick believes that every life is precious and should be protected, valued and have the opportunity to live freely.

-----

And this is all you have to attack him on? Surely you can do bettah!

Anonymous said...

Gee Anonymous,

I wish your parents had given you a different name, seems all the girls are called Jessica or Jennifer & all the boys Anonymous...

At any rate, it is my most cherished desire to grant Rick his wish, so that he no longer has to fight "...so that parents who wish to stay home with their children are able to do so."

I know he likes Virginia, it seems to suit him. In a perfect world worrying about & preparing after home-schooling snacks should be all that concerns Mr. Santorum.

Gloria

Anonymous said...

I believe this bad example of a human
would be having more sex with dogs then he doe's now while his wife sells tickets to watch .