Rhode
Island Delegation Critical of Santorum
However, Senators Reed and Chafee stop short of
calling on the Pennsylvania lawmaker to leave the Republican leadership team.
The
Providence Journal, April 24, 2003
By John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON—Democratic
Representatives Patrick J. Kennedy and James Langevin yesterday called for
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., to quit his Senate GOP leadership post after what
they called “intolerant” and “bigoted” remarks about homosexuals.
Democratic Sen. Jack Reed and Republican Sen. Lincoln D.
Chafee also criticized Santorum’s remarks but stopped short of calling for
him to leave the Republican leadership team.
“We all say things we regret,” Chafee said. Santorum
“should be given a chance to clarify further what he said before we go in
that direction.”
Santorum “certainly went too far in his remarks,”
added Chafee, who has criticized his leadership on a variety of issues. Chafee
was the first prominent Republican to call for then-Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, of Mississippi, to step down before this Congress convened. Lott
had made what many Democrats deemed to be racially insensitive remarks, and he
did resign his leadership post.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press two
weeks ago about a Supreme Court case testing sodomy laws, Santorum suggested
that if the court recognizes homosexuality as protected by privacy rights, it
would also have to protect bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.
Repeatedly in the interview, Santorum said he has “no
problem with homosexuality—I have a problem with homosexual acts.”
Reed said it was “unfortunate and illogical” for
Santorum to link the homosexuality issue to other privacy-related questions
that the courts, Congress and the states have considered.
Santorum “is mixing apples and oranges—he’s mixing
everything.” Sodomy statutes, abortion rights, incest and other sexually
charged legal issues “all have characteristics which are different. To lump
them all together by saying that if the court doesn’t outlaw this [privacy]
function, we can’t outlaw bigamy—it just doesn’t follow logically,”
Reed said.
Reed said he believes Santorum’s statements show
“insensitivity, to say the least, to the lifestyles of people with whom he
doesn’t agree.” Reed said, however, that he knows and works with Santorum
and does not consider him a bigot. “I don’t sense that in him. But these
statements are not helpful. They dismiss thousands and thousands of Americans
without any knowledge of their lives or their contributions to the
community.”
Chafee said he “wasn’t surprised” by the comments
“knowing how deep he [Santorum] is into his religion and some of
these—he’s got some radical views. “
Kennedy said Santorum’s remarks were “despicable”
and that they “highlight the intolerance that exists in many in the
leadership of the national Republican Party, whether it be of people of color
or gays and lesbians.”
Langevin called Santorum’s remarks “offensive.”
Paraphrasing a newspaper column he had read, Langevin asked rhetorically,
“What’s next? Is the senator going to say he does not have a problem with
my disability but doesn’t like my wheelchair?”
Langevin differed with Kennedy, however, in saying,
“I’m not going to paint the Republican Party with one broad brush because
of the intolerant remarks of Senator Santorum.”
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