While Rick continues shilling his book all over cable TV, two central Pennsylvania columnists are skewering him today.
First, we have Francis Volpe in the Carlisle Sentinel. Francis believes Rick should stop digging himself such a large hole:
...Santorum's book idealizes the "Ozzie and Harriet" family at the expense of everyone else's living arrangements. Hardly anybody opposes the two-parent-family model, no matter what conservatives like Santorum would have you think.
But there's an old saying: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. A lot of Harriets-in-training lost their Ozzies in job accidents, military service, or because their particular Ozzie ran off with Donna Reed, leaving Harriet to bring up David and Ricky alone.
Santorum, for all his "takes a family" posturing, is, in his book, a lot more worried about Harriet receiving a welfare check. And though he doesn't say it straight out, he strongly implies that accepting government assistance is directly related to moral turpitude.
Whatever happened to "judge not lest you be judged?" Plenty of good church-going people receive direct government aid, as Penn Hills School District will be happy to affirm.
Santorum has picked a peculiar career path for someone concerned with strengthening our moral fabric. Inside the Beltway, the Ten Commandments play second fiddle to the Seven Deadly Sins on a regular basis.
Ever hear of the "K Street Project?" It's a GOP initiative to strong-arm lobbying firms into firing Democrats and hiring Republicans. Santorum is a big player in this initiative, which reflects no New Testament value I'm familiar with.
You will recall the junior senator voted with the minority to impeach a Democratic president over a sexual peccadillo. Presented with the sorry saga of U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Wilkes-Barre — he kept a mistress for five years and is accused in a civil suit of assaulting her — Santorum said, "… we should look at the job that Congressman Sherwood is doing and make decisions based on the facts and the work that he's doing."
Like they say on the liberal blogs, IOKIYAR — It's OK If You're A Republican.
And Santorum doesn't do real well as a senator with "culture of life" issues outside of abortion. He's on board with capital punishment and the invasion of Iraq — both of which were condemned by Pope John Paul II, his spiritual leader.
For most people, religion and morals are a means to live a good life and try to make sense of life's big questions. For Santorum, they're a truncheon to pound political opponents with. Unfortunately, there's a big constituency for that, too.
Next up is
Nancy Eshelman in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Nancy takes issue with the fact that Rick seems to only want to speak to reporters on his terms:
...In the midst of all this attention, Santorum arranged a conference call with the Catholic press.
Brett Lieberman, who writes for this newspaper from Washington, D.C., heard about the call and dialed in, even though neither he nor The Patriot-News fits the bill.
Santorum was on the line, decrying the controversy, accusing his political enemies of trying to weaken him while he runs "the top political race in the country."
Then he said, "It's sort of sad that they would use religion and this tragic time for purely partisan, blatantly political purposes."
'Cause, you know, Santorum would never do that.
Then, all of a sudden, Lieberman voiced a question.
"Senator," he said, "what I'm hearing from a lot of victims' groups ..."
Santorum interrupted. "Is this Brett Lieberman?"
When Lieberman said yes, Santorum demanded to know what he was doing on a conference call for Catholic press.
"You're not going to be on this call, and you're not going to ask a question," Santorum ordered.
Talking later to Santorum's communications director, Lieberman tried to justify his participation by noting The Patriot-News has Catholic readers and prints in the senator's home state.
He scored no points.
But when it comes to hawking his book, Santorum isn't fussy who's on the other end. Last night, for example, he was scheduled to appear on FOX News with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes and on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.
His PR blitz calls his book "It Takes a Family," "one of the most profound and comprehensive books of political thought ever written by a sitting United States senator."
It's also one of the scariest.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Does anyone else find it problematic that Rick would kick a reporter from a Pennsylvania newspaper off of a conference call for reporters? One can only guess that Rick didn't think Brett Lieberman would be as sympathetic as members of the Catholic press.
http://www.earnedmedia.org/fri0721.htm
"Gays Twice as Apt to Drive Under the Influence says Family Research Institute
COLORADO SPRINGS, Co., July 21 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Have you ever wondered why so many gays and lesbians are involved in auto accidents? Perhaps its because they are twice as apt to drive under the influence. 25% of homosexuals as compared to 14% of straights said that they drove under the influence of drugs or alcohol last year. Gays were more apt to drive impaired than straight men - 32% to 19%, and lesbians than straight women - 17% to 8%.
"Driving is a serious responsibility," said Dr. Paul Cameron, Chairman of the Colorado-based Family Research Institute, who just published the report in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Reports. "Everybody on the road, not just the driver, is endangered by this self-centered and caviler behavior. This is further evidence that gays' devil-may-care attitude toward sex spills into other areas as well. As Shakespeare's Pericles warned, one sin 'another doth provoke.' In light of the many social harms of homosexuality, many documented in our analysis of this Centers for Disease Control study, the coming U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Lawrence v Texas, which gave constitutional protection to homosexual conduct. "
Men were twice as apt to drive under the influence as women. But blacks were less apt than whites to do so - only 7% did so in the past year. Black men were less apt than white men (11% v. 19%) and black women less apt than white women (3% v. 8%).
"This blows a hole in the 'we endanger others because society doesn't fully accept us' argument," said Dr. Cameron who headed the three man team that published the study. "Disturbed people endanger others. This indifference to the wellbeing of others isn't due to discrimination. Blacks have been discriminated against for hundreds of years, and they behaved more responsibly than whites in this area."
AHiddenSaint | 07.26.05 - 2:54 pm |
From a commentor at Americablog.
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/07/26/editorial/rich_lewis/lewis02.txt
Banned in Boston — and soon Pa.?
By Rich Lewis, July 14, 2005
Hide your children and your dogs.
I'm from Boston.
Boo...
Click here for full article.
So little Ricky is a cafeteria Catholic.
It's not just for liberal Catholics anymore.
I wouldn't believe of word of any study coming of of his group if he swore to it on a Bible, a Koran and the Kama Sutra. (Okay, well, maybe on the Kama Sutra. [smile])
Anyway, it's not like, oh, black people know they're more likely to get pulled over than white people--making them more likely to be cautious about drunk driving in the first place.
What a bottom feeder this guy is.
LOL.
And yet, study after study shows that economic stress is the #1 reason for divorce. I saw Little Ricky on Stewart last night and he sure does love the family unit. You'd think he'd do whatever he could to make sure that families had everything possible going for them.
Seems to me Little Ricky needs a reality check.
After all, if they could marry, they wouldn't be driving to the bar on Saturday night, would they?
Also, RICK SANTORUM is an anagram for
TRU CRANK, MOI?
If they don't like him in Harrisburg or Carlisle, they must loathe him in Philly and Pittsburg.
And it doesn't hurt that the tour gives him some national exposure. He's coming off relatively innocuous in his interviews, especially with the mindless Katie Couric giving him a total pass and Jon Stewart even being nice to him.
The bottom line is there is something sinister about Santorum's obsession about sex. There is a reason Shakespeare wrote, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
PRO-JEC-TION! PRO-JECTION!
We can all be deceived by a pretty face and smooth talker with a negative campaign.
Get rid of your idiot before you become the next Indiana, South Carolina, California, or Florida.
http://www.carneyforcongress.com/
Hey Ricky....what were you doing with your best "pal" in college on those many sleepovers?? Playing hide the monkey? (In his mouth I suppose!)