Friday, January 06, 2012

Santorum compares my wedding reading to 9/11

Reading through a great list of "The Most Terrible Things Rick Santorum Has Ever Said" on TNR, I came across this gem-

Santorum, responding to the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision approving same sex marriage:

“This is an issue just like 9/11. We didn't decide we wanted to fight the war on terrorism because we wanted to. It was brought to us. And if not now, when? When the supreme courts in all the other states have succumbed to the Massachusetts version of the law?”

Note - Santorum is comparing a decision allowing people to marry other people they love to 9/11. An excerpt from this court decision (Goodrich v. Department of Health), was among the readings at my wedding, and has some of the most beautiful language about marriage that I've ever read:


Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support; it brings stability to our society. For those who choose to marry, and for their children, marriage provides an abundance of legal, financial, and social benefits. In return it imposes weighty legal, financial, and social obligations....Without question, civil marriage enhances the "welfare of the community." It is a "social institution of the highest importance." ... Marriage also bestows enormous private and social advantages on those who choose to marry. Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family.... Because it fulfils yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition.

That Santorum thinks that this is the equivalent of madmen turning passenger planes into human-filled missiles speaks volumes about his hatred and fear, and his manifest unfitness to be anywhere near the presidency.

I'm not sure whether this says more about Romney, Santorum, or how stupid it is to let a handful of voters decide who gets to be a candidate

Slate's David Weigel, in NH, talking to a NH voter:



Over 24 hours, I watched Santorum, Huntsman, and Gingrich sell themselves to New
Hampshire voters. It wasn’t fair. Winning (or almost winning) one of the early
states makes a candidate Serious. In Tilton, I stop into a pizza place near
Santorum’s event and meet Joe DiBiase, a nice guy with a Bluetooth headset who
has just heard the Gospel of Santorum.
“I don’t like Romney,” he says. “I
like that guy who came in second in Ohio, or whatever it was.”