Santorum Doesn't Know When to Stop

First it was liberals in general, now it's our Senators. Rick Santorum has found someone new to blame the Catholic Church abuse scandal on (Hint, it's not Cardinal Law or anyone else associated with the clergy). From the Globe:

Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, yesterday alleged that Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts ''did nothing" about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in 2002.

"They spoke nothing. They sat by and let this happen," Santorum said.

I guess we should expect nothing else from someone who doesn't believe in the separation of church and state. I wonder who Senator (and I use that term loosely) Santorum blames the abuse that occured in Pennsylvania on.

More On Santorum

Blue Mass Group and Fred Clarkson have much better stories than I could write about Senator Rick Santorum's recent announcement that he stands by comments he made a few years ago about Boston's culture of liberalism being to blame for the Catholic Church abuse scandals (although, I appreciate the terseness of this post). I do, however, want to point out Tom Reilly's response, as reported by the AP:

[Attorney General] Reilly, a Democratic candidate for governor, also criticized Santorum on Wednesday. "For him to equate liberalism with child abuse is disgraceful," he said. "It's embarrassing for him and embarrassing to his party and his party should disown him."

Compare that to what's coming from the Romney Administration:

“Senator Santorum is a fine person, and we’re all entitled to make a mistake once in a while,” [Romney spokesman] Fehrnstrom said.

You have to wonder, does Mitt need the support of Santorum-fans so much for his presidential run that he can't do better than that? You'd think that he'd be more than willing to help take down a potential 2008 rival.

Tainted By Boston Liberals?

The blogosphere was abuzz today with reports of a three-year-old editorial by Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Senator (who lives in Virginia) where he places the blame for the ongoing Church child molestation scandals not on the abusers, but instead on the liberals. Here's the money quote (via CapitolBuzz, as seen on Atrios, Blue Mass Group, The Fray and Left in Lowell among others)

[W]hile it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

I don't really have much to add. John at AmericaBlog points out that while Boston certainly got the most attention, the single largest sex-abuse settlement was not here, but in Kentucky -- hardly a bastion of liberalism.

It's hard for me to have any less respect for Senator Santorum, and this quote doesn't really reveal anything about him that I didn't already know -- despite the conservative mantra of personal responsibility, he will always blame liberals or atheists or secularists or whatever for any and every social ill. It's this mindset that I think is Mitt Romney's biggest obstacle to the presidency -- even more than his religion. He's tainted by his association with Massachusetts in the eyes of many Conservatives. The idea that he is somehow acceptable in Boston automatically means he unacceptable to these radicals. After all, if Boston liberalism can infect the Catholic Church, what chance does Mitt have?

[Update] Some people, notably our own David Eisenthal, are wondering why these three-year old comments are suddenly exploding over the past week. While Santorum's opinion piece is indeed old, the first time these remarks appeared in any mainstream publication was on Friday, in an op-ed by John Baer in the Philidelphia Daily News (reg req). Baer picked out some of Santorum's "greatest hits" and contrasted the controversial Senator with his presumed opponent, the mild-mannered Bob Casey. While it's true that the quote is a few years old, there's no statute of limitations on being a moron.