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Banned in Boston — and soon Pa.?
By Rich Lewis, July 14, 2005
Hide your children and your dogs.
I'm from Boston.
Boo.
OK, so I've lived in Carlisle for the past 25 years. And I'm not exactly from Boston, but one of its grubby suburbs.
But I did inhale Boston air for 22 years, went to a Catholic high school in Boston, and then to college in the next town over.
So I am undoubtedly incurably infected by the morality-degrading virus that makes the capital of Massachusetts unsafe for decent Americans.
At least Rick Santorum thinks so.
As you may have heard, the junior senator from Pennsylvania is under fire this week for refusing to repudiate comments he made a few years ago blaming the "liberalism" of Boston for the pedophile scandal there involving Catholic priests.
"It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm," Santorum wrote in July 2002.
We now know the abuse was a national problem and involved cities from Philadelphia to Louisville to Tucson to Los Angeles. It just happened to blow up first in Boston.
So you'd think Santorum would have reconsidered his attack on that city.
But no.
On Tuesday, Santorum told Boston Globe reporter Susan Milligan that he stood by his original comments. He pointed to the city's "sexual license" and "sexual freedom" and concluded: "If you have a world view that I'm describing (about Boston) ... that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way."
So, Boston's Catholic priests saw all those college students making out on the banks of the Charles River and thought to themselves, "Yahoo, this means we can fondle the altar boys"?
Do you really believe that?
Trust me; I grew up there. It wasn't like some movie ("Night of the Living Liberals"?) where we zombied around, violating nature's laws under the influence of an evil fog emanating from Harvard and MIT.
Santorum's cultural theories certainly didn't impress John Salveson, a national board member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), who told Knight Ridder's Carrie Budoff, "It is like saying living in a trailer home causes tornadoes."
SNAP National Director David Clohessy called Santorum's remarks "misguided and harmful."
Of course, Santorum has a remarkably fertile imagination when it comes to sex and a curious eagerness to talk about it. In 2003, he freaked out a female reporter when, in the middle of a denunciation of homosexuality, he unexpectedly started muttering about "man-on-dog" relationships.
I love Pennsylvania, but I find it embarrassing that Santorum occupies one of our seats in the United States Senate.
Still, you might wonder why he is suddenly the focus of so much national attention over comments he made three years ago. Even Teddy Kennedy felt moved to denounce him for the Boston comments on the Senate floor on Wednesday in what the Associated Press called "a rare personal attack."
The reason is that Democrats suddenly smell Santorum's blood in the political water.
Santorum is up for re-election next year, a crucial test if he hopes to run for president in 2008.
But a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday confirms what many already knew — Santorum will have a tough time against his likely Democratic opponent in 2006, state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. The poll shows Casey ahead 50-39 percent. Santorum also carries a much higher negative rating among voters, 27 percent to Casey's 9 percent.
So you can expect Democrats all across the country to make a lot of noise when Santorum says or does something especially stupid — like blaming "liberalism" for causing priests to engage in child abuse. By exposing Santorum as a self-righteous, intolerant loony, Democrats soften him up for the 2006 campaign.
Santorum's media consultant, John Brabender, told Budoff that Kennedy's attack was a "political hit" intended to benefit Casey.
"The fact that they have to pull out-of-context quotes from three years ago shows how desperate they are," Brabender said.
Well, no. It shows how vulnerable Santorum is to being hammered with his own words, which were not out of context.
And Casey, with a fat lead in the Quinnipiac poll, has no reason to feel "desperate," nor does he need much of that kind of help to win. He carries a very popular political name and has proven he can win statewide. His father, former Gov. Bob Casey, was a true "compassionate conservative" Democrat who fought hard on behalf of Pennsylvania's poor and working class. The son will benefit from that legacy.
Casey Jr., like his father, is staunchly anti-abortion — which takes that explosive issue off the table, but won't cost Casey many votes since even pro-choice Democrats will grit their teeth and vote for him because they detest Santorum so deeply.
And Casey, like his father, knows how to take and throw political punches. He'll attack and defend ferociously, unlike Ron Klink, the hapless Democrat Santorum steamrolled in 2000.
It won't be easy to take down Santorum. His base is fanatically loyal. He's won elections that people said he couldn't win.
But with Democrats ready to pound him for every dumb remark — and his penchant for making them — Casey may have more than enough to get the job done.
The Boston in me and the Pennsylvania in me would both be more than pleased.
Rich Lewis's e-mail address is:
[email protected]
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