GOP
Stands by a Bigoted Senator
Omaha
World-Herald, May 3, 2003
World Herald Square, Omaha, NE 68102
Fax: 402-345-4547
Email: pulse@owh.com
By Marianne Means, Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans are keeping
Pennsylvania’s bigoted Rick Santorum in their top leadership ranks, despite
his alarming declaration that Americans do not have a constitutional right to
privacy.
He would sic the cops on people who do not meet his
puritanical standards of personal behavior in their own homes. In an
Associated Press interview, he attacked gay couples who engage in private,
consensual sex. He has a long history of similar scorn for married couples who
practice contraception, scientists who do stem-cell research and doctors who
perform abortions.
In the interview, the senator compared voluntary
homosexual acts with crimes that have victims, such as bigamy, polygamy,
incest and adultery. At the heart of his venom is this philosophy: “It
(homosexuality) all comes from this right to privacy that doesn’t exist in
my opinion in the United States Constitution.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that women had a
limited right to an abortion based on a right to privacy implied in the
Constitution’s 14th Amendment. It is difficult to imagine how a country
could long remain free if its citizens were denied privacy from prying
officials. The right to be left alone is important, to live our lives as we
choose so long as we do not harm others.
Yet Santorum’s GOP colleagues rallied around him,
reaffirming his position in the party’s third-highest Senate post. Only a
handful of moderates expressed disagreement with his remarks. What does this
tell us about the state of the Republican Party today? Nothing nice.
Santorum was elected to the House in 1990 and quickly
became a clone of Newt Gingrich, who was then leading the right-wing revolt
that would hand the House to the GOP in 1994. That conservative wave also
elevated Santorum to the Senate.
He has been a constant disruptive force, a disgrace to
his party and traditional Senate comity. He tried to shove Senate
Appropriations Committee chairman Mark Hatfield out of his job for voting
against a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Yet somehow he lost
his dedication to balanced budgets in his current fervor to give the president
another deficit-creating tax cut.
Early in the Clinton administration, he shocked
old-timers by repeatedly showing up on the Senate floor with a chart reading
“Where’s Bill?” His lack of respect for the presidency accelerated the
coarsening of the political discourse.
Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, complained, “I
was taught when I was in the Navy the commander-in-chief deserved respect, and
I never called the president of the United States by his first name in public,
let alone on the floor of the Senate.”
But Senate Republicans, far from being appalled by
Santorum’s rudeness, have proceeded to reward him for his bad behavior.
They are still protecting him. A Catholic who is said to
attend Mass every day, Santorum’s views on cultural issues reflect those of
his Church. In addition to equating homosexuality with incest and bigamy,
Santorum is also opposed to abortion and has led repeated efforts to overturn
Roe vs. Wade or at least limit its impact.
Most recently, he successfully led the fight to ban a
rare type of late-term abortion critics call “partial birth” abortion.
And he opposes potentially life-saving stem-cell research
because it would destroy a tiny bit of ectoplasm that might grow into a baby
if implanted in a woman’s womb.
When his anti-gay comments became known, Santorum’s
office tried the old “taken out of context” dodge and issued a
mealy-mouthed explanation that he didn’t mean to criticize gay men and
women, only their lifestyle. AP reporter Lara Jakes Jordan, however, taped the
whole interview. What he said was, “I have no problem with homosexuality. I
have a problem with homosexual acts . . . . It’s not the person, it’s the
person’s actions.”
This is rather like President Clinton defending the
indefensible by saying, “It depends upon what ‘is’ is.”
Jordan asked if he were arguing that gays should not have
sex. Santorum replied, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to
consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have
the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to
adultery. You have the right to anything . . . . The idea is that the state
doesn’t have rights to limit individuals’ wants and passions—I disagree
with that.”
The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the
constitutionality of Texas’ law forbidding same-sex acts even if voluntary
and private.
If there is no constitutional right of privacy, of
course, the government or any religion can spy on and meddle in everything we
do without legal or political consequences. Not just in our bedrooms but in
our daily routines. That isn’t democracy; it’s fascism.
It is a terrifying thought. And Santorum is a terrifying
man.
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