Will Santorum Get Sandusky'd

Rick Santorum actually won the Iowa Caucus because of a counting mistake that gave Romney 20 more votes. But Santorum's rise has only led him back to his fixation on sex. This is a man who spent his Senate career talking about the vagaries of female anatomy and health issues. With the win at his back, he has decided to crank up his old hobby horses.

In New Hampshire, college students challenged him on his assertion that gay sex was similar to man-dog sex. He doubled down on this observation and even said that children were better off with a father in prison than with two mommies, referring to same sex. He explained his absolutism on abortion explaining that banning abortion would solve the Social Security problem. See more younger people more Social Security revenue.

He alarmed his conservative audiences by criticising Ronald Reagan for not solving Social Security once and for all. In fact, Reagan's bipartisan agreement basically put Social Security on a sound financial footing for nearly 75 years. Santorum wants to slash Social Security now, even though it will cause great pain. (Of course, there is no reason to.)

Santorum criticized President Obama wanting "health care for everyone". He thought people with prior conditions should pay more for insurance and that was a penalty for not living a healthy life-style.

This week, hospitals linked to Santorum were accused of conducting exorcisms on a boy with autism. Santorum had also actively supported the charity of Coach Sandusky, who has been arrested again for a string of rapes of under-age young boys.

Santorum explained his position on why birth control should be made illegal. He said that people who think birth control is alright don't realize that using birth control will lead to couples exploring "unnatural" sex acts. I hope a reporter acts dumb and asks whether Santorum could be more explicit in what sex acts he has in mind--because you know he is thinking about them.

Rachel Maddow has done her usual good job in exposing how Santorum while Senator dealt with the sex scandals of his own party. When the cuckholded husband, who had served as a staffer for John Ensign, e-mailed Santorum about the Senator's affair with his wife, Santorum simply send on the e-mail to Ensign as a warning. John Ensign eventually had to resign from the Senate but not until the Ethics Committee was about to drop a bomb on him. Santorum also defended Senator Vitter's behavior with the Washington Madam and the New Orleans Madam. The Madam in New Orleans won the hearts and minds of all political watchers when she said in a soft southern accent "Mr. Vitters wore the most beautiful lingerie I have ever seen."

Santorum has captured the imagination of the Christian Right leaders, who now are asking Newt and Rick Perry to abandon the race and unite behind Santorum. Newt has espoused an alliance with Santorum to stop Mitt Romney. The Santorum upswing has made some pundits break out in fevers. Michael Gerson believes Santorum represents the return of "compassionate conservatism". Charles Krauthammer believes Santorum is a plausible candidate. Even David Brooks tried to make the case for Santorum's social conservatism as some new social ethos. I don't know what they have been smoking but I don't want any of it.

Washington pundits believed--before the South Carolina polls--that Santorum would appeal to the southern voter. But one reporter noted that while northerners have their own stereotypes of South Carolina, it is a state bristling with sophisticated political operatives and they did re-elect Lindsey Graham to the Senate. It's not totally a state of yahoos and the local Republicans are not all evangelicals. In fact, the polling shows the race is more a Romney-Gingrich race.

Both Santorum and Newt Gingrich brag about their roles in Welfare Reform. Their racist dog-whistles are meant to evoke that time. Santorum told the second-whitest state in the union that he would not "improve the lives of blacks at the expense of the taxpayer." Newt said that he would tell the NAACP that instead of food stamps they should ask for paychecks. And Newt loves to call President Obama "the foodstamp President".

Just a FYI--only 1.57% of Americans--that's right 1.57%--are on welfare. Of the millions of Americans who are receiving food stamps, over 70% are white. I humbly suggest Al Sharpton create an African-American support committee for white people. Every time in the 21st century that candidates play the race card, this committee should help whites discover which financial force is trying to pick their pockets. Like much of the social safety net, the problem is they are too weak, not too strong. And the primary beneficiary for them are whites.