Revenge Of The Living Dead

Rick Santorum took one of those ass "thumpins" the President referred to in his most recent Press Conference, and if someone had predicted that to me two years ago, I would have said, "no way".

It's still hard to believe. Santorum was the man I would have been willing to put money on would have been a sure fire bet to be the next Vice-President of the United States, under a Giulliani-Santorum ticket. They would have been unbeatable, I reasoned. They would probably have taken New York from Hillary, and definitely from any other Democratic nominee, and would have taken Pennsylvania as well.

I don't know why, but Santorum had that kind of working class conservative appeal and Christian conservative sincerity that would have provided the perfect balance for Rudi, who is viewed with suspicion by most conservative Christians. Together, they would have swept the independents, the Reagan Democrats, and in the end, the vast majority of Republicans.

So much for that. But why did it happen? Why did the man who once had such bright prospects end up losing to Bob Cassey in his run for re-election to the US Senate by a margin of 59% to 41%?

Well, his standing as the third ranking GOP Senator didn't help, his association with the President didn't help, and in the long run, his faith didn't help. In fact, he started to appear less and less devout and faithful, and more and more sanctimonious and hypocritical. By the time the voting began, it became obvious that he didn't have a parayer.

Terri Schiavo was the beginning of the end. He was one of the most openly vociferous advocates of intervention in a specially conferred legislative session, to which even the President took the time out from one of his many long vacations to attend, the purpose of which was to craft a law that would "permit" the courts to revisit her case.

Santorum himself went the extra mile of attending Schiavos bedside. Me, personally, I have no problem with that. At least he went to see for himself, though of course the case could be made that this was mainly a publicity stunt. At any rate, he was of course unqualified to make a reasonable diagnosis, but he did anyway. He should have just been content with the photo-op and kept his mouth shut, but sometimes the spirit leads you to talk in tonques. Sometimes it just leads you to talk like a fucking imbecile. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference. Not the case here.

But the overal effect of this episode was that it showed the Senate and Congress-and President-for the pandering chumps that they are. Out of all the members of the House of Representatives, only fifty-five of them voted against this nonsense, which passed the Senate by a unanimous voice vote. Shameful. And Rick Santorum, unfortunately for him, became the poster boy for the Senate Republicans as regards this affair.

The House Republican equivalent here would probably have been Tom DeLay, with his veiled threats against the judiciary. Well, if you are judged by the company you keep-

And speaking of the Democrats, they played this shamefully as well, but any honest person would have to admit, they played it smart. They knew if they obected, they would have been painted as godless lovers of death going into this election. They are anyway, but it would have been the face above that would have been thrown at them. By keeping thier distance they avoided this.

It is to their credit they didn't overplay the Schiavo affair, but they didn't really have to. The voters remembered. They remembered in Pensylvania. No, that wasn't the only thing. There were the things I mentioned, along with the support for the Iraq War,which Santorum seemed to have been trying to distance himself from in the closing weeks by suggesting it might be appropriate to change course by adjusting strategies without withdrawing. But it wasn't good enough.

Santorum was also remembered and widely criticized in addition for his stance on Intelligent Design, going so far as to propose that the Presidents "Faith Based Initiatives" program include funding and support for the teaching in public schools of the controversy between proponents of evolution and those of intelligent design as a scientific explanation for the formation, or creation, of the universe.

By and large, Santorum through all these controversies came to be seen as a fundamentalist religous whacko who wanted to impose his beliefs on the public by way of government, and on the other hand as just another congressional shill for the Bush Administration. That was fine when Bush was popular. Not so good now that he is not.

H should have seen all that coming somewhere down the road, or at least he should have understood the potential, but not only did he not, he continually ignored the warning signs until it was way too late.

So much for intelligent design. So much for blind faith.