Santorum’s
Remarks Could Have Political Consequences
The
Express-Times, April 24, 2003
30 N. 4th Street, P.O. Box 391, Easton, PA 18044-0391
By Bill Cahir, The Express-Times
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Sen. Rick
Santorum on Tuesday refused to apologize for likening homosexuality to
bestiality, incest and adultery. If anything, Santorum betrayed some amazement
to the suggestion that he had to defend himself.
“I do not need to give an apology based on what I said
or what I’m saying now,” Santorum told Fox News.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a gay Democrat from
Massachusetts, in an interview Wednesday claimed Santorum was a victim of
changing standards of political decency.
There was a time, Frank said, when Republican lawmakers
could make remarks that infuriated homosexuals but take comfort in the lack of
media coverage or in the absence of a political backlash.
Frank noted that none other than then-Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., in June 1998 had suggested that gays ought to
receive treatment like the kind offered to sex addicts, kleptomaniacs and
alcoholics. Lott was not censured, and no one called for him to give up his
job.
“There was very little flak,” Frank said. “In
Trent’s case it wasn’t a big deal.”
Times have changed to such an extent that Santorum now
must defend himself, even if the Pennsylvania Republican has articulated a
legal opinion about the unacceptable nature of gay sex that is held by a
majority of GOP senators, Frank said.
“Santorum is a victim of cultural lag,” Frank said.
“He doesn’t realize that this kind of prejudice is outdated these days ...
The country’s evolving.”
Some groups, such as the Log Cabin Republicans and
Republican Main Street Partnership, have offered mild rebukes to Santorum, the
third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate. But many other Republicans have
rallied to Santorum’s defense.
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., on Tuesday claimed
Santorum was “not a bigot.” Rush Limbaugh praised Santorum in his
broadcast on Wednesday. Gary Bauer, president of a Virginia-based group called
American Values, in an interview said Santorum was correct to defend the Texas
law banning sodomy between gay men, even if the senator did so by likening
gays to people who engage in incest and other misconduct.
“He was making a legal analysis that his critics have
still not addressed,” Bauer said. “To repeat it: It was simply that if the
Supreme Court knocks down a state anti-sodomy law, it’s hard to imagine a
legal theory that allows any other state law regarding sexuality to be upheld.
“Legally, (Santorum’s) point of view is absolutely
correct,” Bauer added.
“What the controversy is about is not changing morays
[sic!], but the increasing tendency of the gay rights movement to silence any
dissent by labeling it bigotry.”
Santorum in a news release Tuesday claimed his remarks
had been “misconstrued.” He declined to apologize and said his statements
focused only upon the Texas statute, not upon private conduct.
The Human Rights campaign, a leading gay-rights group, on
Wednesday sought to pressure Santorum out of his job as chairman of the Senate
Republican conference.
“Make no mistake, he (Santorum) absolutely meant to
malign the country’s (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) community and
is now trying to backpedal because it is politically expedient. Santorum is
not fit for the leadership role he holds,” Elizabeth Birch, executive
director of the gay-rights group, said in a statement.
G. Terry Madonna, director of the Millersville University
Center on Politics and Public Affairs, said he believed that Santorum had
inflicted a lasting political wound upon himself. Madonna described
Pennsylvania as “a fundamentally moderate state” that admired tolerance in
its public officials and abhorred all signs of bigotry.
“I don’t think these comments are socially
acceptable,” Madonna said.
Unlike the Human Rights Campaign, Frank said he was not
hoping to see Senate Republicans replace Santorum with some other leader.
“Who’s going to replace him? Somebody with the same
views as him,” Frank said. “The Republican Party mainstream is where Rick
is ... He embarrassed them, but in fairness to him, he embarrassed them by
saying what almost all of them believe.”
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