This award is for "Biggest Jerk on Capitol Hill". Maybe we'll make this an annual installment. This year, it certainly goes to Rick Santorum, junior senator from Pennsylvania. Let's review the atrocities, shall we?
- There's this bill, which would require that you pay for National Weather Service info that your tax dollars already pay for. Can this be seen as anything but a total sell-out to advertiser-supported weather sites?
- When Senator Byrd compared the GOP's potential nuclear option to Nazi activities, Santorum admonished him, which is a good thing. But then, he went on to compare the Democrats to Hitler for trying to keep the filibuster. One wonders what Hitler's views would be.
- Of course, he's a homophobe, that kind of goes without saying. Next.
- In 2001, he attempted to amend the No Child Left Behind Act to allow for the teaching of Intelligent Design. Thankfully, this is only now happening in backward states like Ohio (ha! Please don't kill me.)
- Let's not forget this beauty:
It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior [Catholic sex scandals], 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.
- Finally, we have some truly excellent excerpts from his new book:
| "Many women have told me, and surveys have shown, that they find it easier, more 'professionally' gratifying, and certainly more socially affirming, to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children. Think about that for a moment…Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism, one of the core philosophies of the village elders." | "But unlike abortion today, in most states even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave." |
| "By asking the right question, we can see that when it comes to socialization, mass education is really the aberration, not homeschooling. Never before in human history have a majority of children spent at least half their waking hours in the presence of 25 to 35 unrelated children of exactly the same age (and usually the same socio-economic status), with only one adult to keep order and provide basic mentoring. Never before and never again after their years of mass education will any person live and work in such a radically narrow, age-segregated environment. It’s amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools." | |
Are there any I forgot?
8 comments:
In another gem, Santorum compares homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality: "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
But for a good laugh, check out Dan Savage's definition of "Santorum." I won't repeat the description here. Suffice it to say that you can find "Santorum" defined in many places now, including the Urban Dictionary.
Oh, and speaking of hubris, on his campaign website, Santorum claims responsibility for the Welfare Reform act of 1996 and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban of 2003. The biggest jerk on capitol hill, indeed! Still, a better name for the award might be in order, especially if we want to make this a weekly service of our blog... I'll think about it :-)
Well ... he did compare homosexuality to bestiality, but to my mind that quote isn't really that bad. What if I said "I think people should stop picking on homosexuals. It's not like they're alcoholics or devil worshipers." Did I just compare homosexuals to alcoholics and devil worshipers? It was a stupid thing for him to say, but I don't think it betrayed any latent homophobia ... not as much as his other quotes, anyway.
// posted by Bell Curve
As a name for the award I suggest the "Preston Brooks" award. Brooks was the House Rep who barged into the Senate and caned Charles Sumner for his outspoken attacks on Slavery and on Brooks' relative, Senator Butler of South Carolina in particular.
There must be dozens of good candidates for a name for the award. Anyone have a nomination?
// posted by Raised By Republicans
Not that I think people should pick on alcololics anyway. Geesh, it's hard to be in the public eye.
// posted by Bell Curve
Bell Curve: I think you misread Santorum's meaning slightly. The pronoun "It's" in the last sentence I quoted ("It's not, you know, man on child...") refers to marriage, not homosexuality.
Perhaps I should have included more of the quotation--it would have been clearer: "Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman... In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that..."
Santorum makes it clear that he is lumping "man on man" together with "man on child" and "man on dog"--he even says he's not specifically "picking on" homosexuality any more than the others.
Oh, and here are some words from the same interview that may come back to haunt him later. "The right to privacy is a right that was created in a law... and I don't agree with that... I would put it back to where it is, the democratic process. If New York doesn't want sodomy laws, if the people of New York want abortion, fine. I mean, I wouldn't agree with it, but that's their right. But I don't agree with the Supreme Court coming in."
But he's also opposed to equal protection, right? I mean he would object if New York passed a law that allowed same sex marriage because that marriage would then have to be recognized by the other 49 states. Right? LTG, little help?
// posted by Raised By Republicans
He wants "democratic processes" to amend the constitution to outlaw gay marriage. For that reason, he also opposes any "full faith and credit" to gay marriages from states that do not discriminate.
// posted by LTG
Yes, "full faith and credit" that's what I was thinking of but I couldn't keep the legal terminology straight in my head without looking it up.
// posted by Raised By Republicans
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