Santorum: "That's Latin for Asshole"

I heard someone say recently that the Republican primary field is like Baskin-Robbins, there are so many great options to chose from that it's difficult to pick just one. I couldn't tell if the person was being ironic or not, but if these primaries were a contest to choose the stupidest, most obnoxious and backward thinking moron in the country, it would indeed be too close to call. As a matter of fact, the only candidates who could be eliminated from contention would be Jon Huntsman, the only reasonable one, and Ron Paul, a creep of a completely different stripe.

Rick Santorum's recent bid to be the latest flavor of the month has given him the media spotlight during the Iowa caucuses.
His post-caucus speech was so nauseating that it moved me to write this blog post. Before doing so I wanted to "bone up" on Rick by going to my computer and accessing that "series of tubes" known as "the interwebs".

We all know about Rick's "google problem" and of course I encountered the notorious search result during my investigations. I used to think that that google bomb was too mean spirited and that the gay community should "think about the children," "hate the sin but not the sinner" and be more tolerant of Rick's intolerance. But after getting a dose of his relentless obsession with homosexuality and his non-stop campaign to treat it like a contagious disease, I'm not so sure that he's not just receiving, as the free market worshipers would say, "the fruits of his labors".

As Jeffrey St. Clair, a writer for the political newsletter "CounterPunch", wrote:
"Like most religious zealots, Santorum is obsessed not just with homosexuals but with visualizing the postures and physical mechanics of homosexual love."

In honor of Rick Santorum’s sudden emergence in the Iowa caucuses "as the anti-Romney du jour", CounterPunch reprinted a 2003 profile by St. Clair of the "Pennsylvania zealot". It descibes his career in the United States senate, "where he was almost universally reviled as both stupid and mean by his colleagues and staff."

You might enjoy the first three paragraphs of St. Clair's article, as I did:

"Rick Santorum had only been in the senate for a few weeks when Bob Kerrey, then Senator from Nebraska, pegged him. 'Santorum, that’s Latin for asshole.' It was probably the funniest line the grim Kerrey ever uttered and it was on the mark, too.

"Such a stew of sleazy self-righteousness and audacious stupidity has not been seen in the senate since the days of Steve Symms, the celebrated moron from Idaho. In 1998, investigative reporter Ken Silverstein fingered Santorum as the dumbest member of congress in a story for The Progressive. Considering the competition, that’s an achievement of considerable distinction.

"Even Santorum’s staff knows the senator is a vacuous boob prone to outrageous gaffs and crude outbursts of unvarnished bigotry. For years, they kept him firmly leashed, rarely permitting him to attend a press interview without a senior staffer by his side. They learned the hard way. While in serving in the House, Santorum was asked by a reporter to explain why his record on environmental policy was so dreadful. Santorum replied by observing that the environment was of little consequence in God’s grand plan. 'Nowhere in the Bible does it say that America will be here 100 years from now.' The reference was to the Rapture, which apparently is impending."

I like this guy's style (St. Clair's, that is).

This article reminded me of when I first heard of Santorum. I remember Kerry's line and also hearing that Santorum is of Italian descent. I was a bit surprised because his name did not end in a vowel like almost all Italian surnames do. The ones that don't are often Latinized variants that are derived from base forms of Italian personal names and nicknames, or vice versa. (I own a copy of the Oxford "A Dictionary of Surnames")

I got this from Italyworldclub.com's Origin and Etymology of Italian surnames:

"SANTORUM: From the medieval first name Santoro, derived from the Latin word Sanctus = Saint, the genitive plural form is "Sanctorum", used also to indicate the All Saints feast. Possibly connected to someone acting as a saint, or who has connection with religious things (a sacristan)"

If Santorum is acting as a saint, he ain't acting like any saint I ever heard of. Saints are New Testament creations and have a liberal sensibility. Santorum, like other religious conservatives of his ilk, has an Old Testament sensibility and has learned to filter out the lessons of the New Testament.

This dude is the antithesis of, say, Saint Francis of Assisi, who was born not too far from where Santorum's father came from in Northern Italy.
St. Francis was born into wealth but, after seeing the hardships and misery that befell the poor, was moved to give up his riches and devote his life to helping the poor.
Santorum sees the poor as having it too easy and, after getting voted out of office in 2006, was moved to trade on his political connections and devote his life to helping himself get rich.

Anyway, his post Iowa speech was filled with the kind of rhetoric that the ultra-conservative Republican base just can't seem to get enough of. Like Pavlov's dogs, they are conditioned to drool at the sound of any right-wing blowhard who talks about food stamps, European welfare states or the government giving the poor "other people's money".

In my next post I will give this rhetoric the scrutiny it deserves.