from Tales from the Trail:
Santorum explains “phony theology” comment
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says he wasn't questioning Barack Obama's faith on Saturday when he said the Democratic president's agenda was based on "some phony theology."
Santorum explained his comments during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday, saying he was questioning the president's world view -- not his faith.
"I accept the fact that the president's Christian," Santorum said. "I just said that when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man says that, you know, we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the earth by things that are frankly just not scientifically proven."
A devout Roman Catholic and social conservative, Santorum brought up the theology issue a day earlier in Columbus, Ohio, as he addressed supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement. (Here's the story from Reuters' Sam Jacobs)
On ABC's "This Week," Robert Gibbs, a senior advisor to Obama's re-election campaign said Santorum's "phony theology" comment crosses a line and was dragging the presidential campaign down.
“I can't help but think that those remarks are well over the line," Gibbs said. "It's wrong. It's destructive. It makes it virtually impossible to solve the problems that we all face together as Americans.”
Here's Santorum on "Face the Nation"
from Tales from the Trail:
Rick Santorum: birth control ruling has nothing to do with women’s rights
Forcing religious organizations to provide contraceptives has nothing to do with women's rights, Republican presidential contender and vocal Catholic Rick Santorum said on Thursday.
The comment aligned Santorum with a lineup of conservative critics bashing Democratic President Barack Obama's rule requiring religious institutions -- but not churches -- to provide health insurance plans that cover birth control.
The rule, announced in January, covers religious-affiliated groups like charities, hospitals and universities. The Catholic Church opposes most methods of birth control and conservatives have painted the rule as an attack on religious freedom from a secular president.
Speaking to CNN's John King, the former Pennsylvania senator said: "That's the Church's money, and forcing them to do something that they think is a grievous moral wrong. How can that be a right of a woman? That has nothing to do with the right of a woman."
Santorum bills himself as the only true conservative in the field of Republicans vying to win their party's nomination to challenge Obama in November. He's backed by evangelical leaders and social conservatives who admire his consistent and at times polemical stances on abortion and gay marriage. He swept nominating contests Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado on Tuesday buoyed by votes from social conservatives.
Better than expected economic news and the administration's move, which was initially viewed as a score for women's health advocates, have shifted the conversation of an election that most believed would be centered on the economy.
Conservative heavyweights including House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Texas Governor Rick Perry and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich have all warned of an attack on religious freedom coming from the White House. Obama also risks losing the votes of Catholics of whom he won 54 percent in 2008. On Thursday, the administration back-pedalled from its position, promising room for compromise but the groundwork for the attacks seems to have been laid.
How’s this for an attack on the church? I want to remove their tax-exempt status. If they want to involve themselves in politics rather than focusing on their stated mission to save souls, thar’s just fine with me. Let’s tax them. On any given Sunday, and this holds true for the mega-fundamentalist churches more than any, most of the “sermon” is instruction on the joys of the Republican Party and the tragedy of allowing the Democrates to grant more freedoms to more people who don’t happen to hold with the Conservative Rights oppressive social agenda. Fine but that’s not the reasons given to justify tax-exemption. I am so sick of the churches duplicity and wonder what Christ thinks about their message of exclusion and ill-disguised Hate.
from Tales from the Trail:
Santorum courts Texas conservatives
By Judy Wiley
Roughly 1,000 supporters filled the Fairview Farms Corral Barn in Plano, Texas and spilled out the door of the party hall where they'd come to see the man in the day's political spotlight -- Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum.
Those who stood outside in the cold could only hear bits and pieces of Santorum's talk, but that didn't stop them from cheering after he raised his voice to declare, "Now is the time for America to rise up and say, "Enough!"
They took up a chant of "We pick Rick," after he asked, "Are you going to give me the opportunity?"
Santorum's visit to The Lone Star State opened 14 miles away in McKinney at a forum with local pastors. Between the Bella Donna Chapel and the barn at Fairview Farms, there was a stop at a Plano hotel ballroom where some 300 supporters turned out to "meet-and-greet" Santorum.
The Wednesday night rally at the Corral Barn capped a Texas campaign swing, with an exuberant Santorum buoyed by his three-state sweep in Tuesday's GOP nominating contests.
Joseph Cabrera and his sister Esperanza Cabrera of Dallas were in Plano with her two daughters -- at their first political rally -- but never got inside the 8,200 square foot barn behind Mario's Chiquita Restaurant.
He should do well in texas, after all they elected bush and perry.
from Tales from the Trail:
Santorum staffer questions whether God wants women presidents
A staffer in Rick Santorum's presidential campaign is under fire for an email suggesting a female commander-in-chief could be at odds with the Bible's teachings.
The Des Moines Register last week reported that Santorum's Iowa coalitions director, Jamie Johnson, sent an email over the summer asking, ‘Is it God’s highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will … to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?"
Michele Bachmann, a social conservative who campaigned heavily in Iowa, competed with Santorum over the conservative evangelical vote in the Iowa caucuses. She dropped out of the race after a dismal finish in the Iowa race.
This weekend Peter Waldron, Bachmann's faith outreach coordinator, said the email was proof that Santorum had engaged in a "sexist strategy" to sabotage Bachmann. He demanded an apology from Santorum and called for Johnson's firing.
The recent spat brings the issue of sexism in conservative politics to the fore again. When Bachmann ended her campaign, political observers wondered whether conservative perceptions of women and Bachmann's own alignment with the Christian right and disavowal of feminism had been her undoing.
The Des Moines Register said that in the final weeks of her campaign Bachmann's aides began to complain that sexism was a problem in Iowa’s religious conservative community, even as her aides deflected questions from reporters on the topic.
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All these so-called “social conservatives” screamed bloody murder when it was rumored that Muslims were being granted a religious exemption to the individual mandate on PPACA. (Even though that was nothing more than a chain-email rumor.) Now these same wingnuts insist that if Obama doesn’t grant Catholics a religious exemption that he’s somehow violating the constitution. Which is it Republicons? Do your religious beliefs exempt you from following the law or don’t they? Or is it just YOUR religious beliefs that garner special privilege?