Way, way back in the early days of a few months ago in August, Rick Santorum signed the National Organization for Marriage pledge, which was a strictly anti-gay pledge to promise that as president, Rick Santorum (and the other signers) would fight the gays at all costs and abolish our marriages everywhere. There were five goals stated in the pledge:
1) Send a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman to the states for ratification
2) Defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which includes the traditional definition of marriage and ban states from recognizing gay marriage, in court;
3) Appoint judges and an Attorney General who oppose a constitutional right to same-sex marriage
4) Appoint a commission to investigate claims of harassment against those who support marriage as being only between a man and a woman
5) Support legislation that would give people living in the District of Columbia the right to vote on marriage
Rick Santorum, as one of the first signers of the document, was very very serious about marriage. He had been a proud opponent of marriage for gays and lesbians and even went further than other candidates in opposing gay intimacy altogether. He has completely rejected the Supreme Court's landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas. He has compared gay marriage to 'calling a paper towel a napkin', he has compared it to a 'non-alcoholic beverage' and he has compared it to 'slavery'. He worries over gay people so much that he would re-institute Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Very, very serious.
But no more!
Oh no, not anymore. You see, he now says he hasn't been talking about gay issues all that much. He says, you see, his grandfather something something freedom:
SANTORUM: I would — well, if you pass a constitutional amendment that says marriage –
O’REILLY: So would you — would that be — would that be in the forefront of your — of your administration?
SANTORUM: As you know, Bill, if you’ve been following me out on the trail, I haven’t been talking a lot about this. Although I strongly believe in it. What I’ve been talking about as I did last night on my acceptance speech where didn’t talk about this issue, I talked about the importance of getting this economy going and talked about my grandfather and coming here for freedom. And this is the fundamental issue in this campaign is whether government is going to be big and obtrusive and telling people how to manage their — their lives or — and are they going to support the basic values of faith and family that allow government to be limited and allow our economy to be strong. Those are the things I talked about and did across Iowa. I’ll be talking about those things here in New Hampshire.
And, you know, this really has to be an insult to NOM and their extremely secretive and always terrified group of big money donors. They've spent lots of time and probably tons of money trying to woo politicians like Santorum and gain their favor so that anti-gay measures will succeed and it will bring NOM even more donors, and now he's ruining it all. By totally throwing them and their hate group allies under the bus and trying to pretend like he's more moderately focused on issues like jobs and his grandfather's freedom-y stuff, he's really showing that these politicians will pledge almost anything if it wins them favor; and these anti-gay groups will accept endorsements from just about any flaky politician if it gets them more money in the end.
I think maybe it's time for NOM to come out with another pledge and make Santorum sign that one twice. In thick, dark marker. And then of course the fifty lashes for disobeying such a prominent homophobic outfit.