NYT Gives Rick Santorum Another Free Pass

Robin Toner’s New York Times article this morning, “Pennsylvania Senate Campaign Tests Democrats' Abortion Tack”, sounds as though she believes Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) is a rational sane person. And he is not. Rick Santorum is a screaming Jesus freak. He not only adamantly opposes abortion, which is his right, but he is a rabid creationist. He believes the world and everything in it was created 6,000 years ago and he admires the fanatic Opus Dei cult. Santorum has publicly fought for capping pain and suffering lawsuits at $250,000. But his wife sued her chiropractor in a pain and suffering case for $500,000 and won $350,000. Santorum has six children. He enrolled his school-age children in a school that was open only to Pennsylvania residents, even though the Santorums live in Virginia. He only removed the kids from the Pennsylvania school when a school board member raised a stink about the illegal arrangement. Last May 24th I said, “It is a total mystery to me exactly how major articles on Republican political candidates are placed in the MSM. But what is just as plain as white cotton panties is that Michael Sokolove's article on Rick Santorum in the Sunday (May 22) New York Times Magazine was planted by the GOP.” That article presented Rick Santorum as a religious, reasonable Mr. Nice Guy. Robin Toner has done the same thing. Her article is about the upcoming Pennsylvania Senate race that pits Democrat Bob Casey against Santorum. Toner presents Santorum as a sound and levelheaded alternative to Bob Casey. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Santorum is a far-right religious zealot. On April 7th, 2003, he said in an Associated Press interview, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” Later on in the interview, he went ballistic and ranted about “man on dog” sex. On May 18th, 2005 he expounded on the Senate filibuster fight and equated those who were against changing the way judges are confirmed with Hitler. He said, “It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942, 'I'm in Paris. How date you invade me. How dare you bomb my City? It's mine.'” Why does the New York Times insist on presenting Rick Santorum as a reasonable option in the Pennsylvania Senate race? The man is not reasonable. He’s a far-right fanatic and a bigot. He makes hateful intemperate remarks and only regrets them when he sees they have hurt his chances at the polls. Former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey once wondered whether Santorum is "Latin for asshole.” Santorum sees himself as President of the United States in 2008. If the election for Prez were between Rick Santorum and Richard Nixon, the reasonable, sane, law-abiding, truth-loving, congenial best man would be Nixon.