Matalin
and Carville Exchange Barbs on Santorum
NBC
News, May 11, 2003
Meet The Press (excerpt)
Host: Tim Russert
Guests: John Snow, Treasury Secretary; Senator Tom
Daschle, (D-S.D.) Minority Leader; Mary Matalin, Republican Strategist; James
Carville, Democratic Strategist
MR. RUSSERT: Mary, let me turn to the issue of gay
Americans. Two hundred gay Republicans met with three White House officials on
Friday.
MS. MATALIN:
Right.
MR. RUSSERT: As you well know, the Republican
Unity Coalition, a group that you’ve spoken to in the past, headed by former
President Gerald Ford, had this to say about Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania:
“It is flat-out wrong for Senator Santorum to compare homosexual conduct
with bigamy, incest, polygamy and adultery. These are false and harmful
comparisons that do not distinguish between conduct that is harmful and
hurtful to fellow humans and society, and conduct between consenting adults in
the sanctity of their own home that harms absolutely no one. ... Senator
Santorum owes an apology to gay men and women who support, build and have
loving families all across America.” Do you agree with that?
MS. MATALIN:
They are parroting what the Democratic interpretation of what Senator
Santorum, who’s a wonderful, caring, loving man who spent much of his career
helping the poor and the homeless. As a legal matter, this great senator, was
parroting the same position that Justice Byron White, a Kennedy appointment
took in the ‘80s in the Bowers case. As moral matter, he is a devout
Catholic, as is my altar boy husband here, and that church teaches that you
must love and accept the individual but you cannot accept the act. The act is
a sin.
They have raised the tolerance bar here. It’s not good
enough to say, as the senator said, “I love this person. I accept this
person. But my teaching argues against the act.” You now have to reject your
religious doctrine—if you want to call anybody a bigot, then you should call
Justice Byron White and the pope a bigot because those goals are the
prevailing farce that...
MR. CARVILLE:
I think it’s the most cockamamy thing in the world. We don’t care if
you’re homosexual, you just can’t act on your sexual impulses.
MS. MATALIN:
It’s you’re [sic] church. It’s you’re [sic] church.
MR. CARVILLE:
Well, that church is wrong on that.
MS. MATALIN: I
don’t disagree with that.
MR. CARVILLE:
To tell somebody—I completely...
MS. MATALIN:
The church is wrong on that, but you don’t call the pope a bigot.
MR. CARVILLE:
I think the pope is wrong. But let me just say this right now.
MS. MATALIN:
Is that a bigot? Is he a bigot?
MR. CARVILLE:
He’s not—again, Rick Santorum...
MS. MATALIN:
That’s what you’re calling Santorum.
MR. CARVILLE:
...is a non-inclusive person. George Bush can tell you about it. I think
it’s entirely...
MS. MATALIN:
Oh, it’s outrageous.
MR. CARVILLE:
Now, wait a minute.
MS. MATALIN:
And this president is more inclusive.
MR. CARVILLE:
Let me finish this thought. It is entirely cockamamy to say somebody who
commits incest is the same as two homosexuals living together and it’s
cockamamy to say it’s OK to be a homosexual. We can’t do anything about
it. . . .
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