I think I have finally figured out Rick Santorum

[jmowreader]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_hatter

In early England, hatmakers used mercury when making felt. Mercury absorbs through the skin and, when vaporized, can be absorbed, causing dementia over a period of time.

Santorum comes from a coal-mining state, Pennsylvania. Coal is a popular residential heating fuel there, but there's mercury in it which becomes a vapor when the coal is burned.

People are sensitive to mercury to various degrees. If Rick Santorum is exceptionally sensitive to mercury, and he grew up in a neighborhood where a lot of families had coal-fired heating systems, the mercury vapor in the coal smoke would have damaged him permanently.

Unfortunately for Mr. Santorum, the Americans with Disabilities Act only requires reasonable accommodations be made when integrating a disabled person into a job, and there's no reasonable accommodation that will allow a batshit crazy person to serve as president.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. He's barking mad, but he's not mercury-poisoning mad.

Although the name "Mad Hatter" was clearly done and inspired by the phrase "as mad as a hatter", there is some uncertainty as to the origins of this phrase. Mercury was used in the process of curing felt used in some hats, making it impossible for hatters to avoid inhaling the mercury fumes given off during the hat making process; hatters and mill workers thus often suffered mercury poisoning, causing neurological damage, including confused speech and distorted vision. Hat making was the main trade in Stockport, near where Carroll grew up, and it was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning. However, the Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include "excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self-confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive." The Hatter and the March Hare are initially referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, and both first appear in the seventh chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is titled "A Mad Tea-Party".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hatter

Icky Ricky is anything but timid and shy.

[Lugnut]

2. I grew up in the same kind of atmosphere.

We use coal to heat our house. I'm not insane. Rick Santorum is.

[backscatter712]

3. I just posted a Truthout article that provides a psychological profile of right-wing authoritarians.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002334107