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The original santorum 2003 interview for those who want to know Roland00 Send a noteboard - 07/01/2012 05:32:00 AM
The original interview took place on April 7, 2003

This is the original article posted on April 20, 2003. Note this is not an interview but instead a fluff piece that has been condensed by the AP writer after the interview.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SgMzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TQgGAAAAIBAJ&dq=santorum&pg=7003%2C6199773

Now before the April 20, 2003 article was posted the AP writter stated she showed the finished article to Santorum asking if he wanted to clarify his comments, he refused to do so.
http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2003b/050903/050903k.htm

Since there were some minor controversy about the interview, the AP posted the full part of the relevant bits 3 days later which can be found here.

I posted the information below since it is the most relevant bits

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-23-santorum-excerpt_x.htm



Excerpt from Santorum interview
The Associated Press
An unedited section of the Associated Press interview, taped April 7, with Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. Words that couldn't be heard clearly on the tape are marked (unintelligible).

AP: If you're saying that liberalism is taking power away from the families, how is conservatism giving more power to the families?

SANTORUM: Putting more money in their pocketbook is one. The more money you take away from families is the less power that family has. And that's a basic power. The average American family in the 1950s paid (unintelligible)% in federal taxes. An average American family now pays about 25%.

The argument is, yes, we need to help other people. But one of the things we tried to do with welfare, and we're trying to do with other programs is, we're setting levels of expectation and responsibility, which the left never wanted to do. They don't want to judge. They say, Oh, you can't judge people. They should be able to do what they want to do. Well, not if you're taking my money and giving it to them. But it's this whole idea of moral equivalency. (unintelligible) My feeling is, well, if it's my money, I have a right to judge.

AP: Speaking of liberalism, there was a story in The Washington Post about six months ago, they'd pulled something off the Web, some article that you wrote blaming, according to The Washington Post, blaming in part the Catholic Church scandal on liberalism. Can you explain that?

SANTORUM: You have the problem within the church. Again, it goes back to this moral relativism, which is very accepting of a variety of different lifestyles. And if you make the case that if you can do whatever you want to do, as long as it's in the privacy of your own home, this "right to privacy," then why be surprised that people are doing things that are deviant within their own home? If you say, there is no deviant as long as it's private, as long as it's consensual, then don't be surprised what you get. You're going to get a lot of things that you're sending signals that as long as you do it privately and consensually, we don't really care what you do. And that leads to a culture that is not one that is nurturing and necessarily healthy. I would make the argument in areas where you have that as an accepted lifestyle, don't be surprised that you get more of it.

AP: The right to privacy lifestyle?

SANTORUM: The right to privacy lifestyle.

AP: What's the alternative?

SANTORUM: In this case, what we're talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We're not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We're talking about a basic homosexual relationship. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a a perfectly fine relationship as long as it's consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that's fine, you would assume that you would see more of it.

AP: Well, what would you do?

SANTORUM: What would I do with what?

AP: I mean, how would you remedy? What's the alternative?

SANTORUM: First off, I don't believe —

AP: I mean, should we outlaw homosexuality?

SANTORUM: I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts. As I would with acts of other, what I would consider to be, acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships. And that includes a variety of different acts, not just homosexual. I have nothing, absolutely nothing against anyone who's homosexual. If that's their orientation, then I accept that. And I have no problem with someone who has other orientations. The question is, do you act upon those orientations? So it's not the person, it's the person's actions. And you have to separate the person from their actions.

AP: OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?

SANTORUM: We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold — Griswold was the contraceptive case — and abortion. And now we're just extending it out. And the further you extend it out, the more you — this freedom actually intervenes and affects the family. You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality —

AP: I'm sorry, I didn't think I was going to talk about "man on dog" with a United States senator, it's sort of freaking me out.

SANTORUM: And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire. And we're seeing it in our society.

AP: Sorry, I just never expected to talk about that when I came over here to interview you. Would a President Santorum eliminate a right to privacy — you don't agree with it?

SANTORUM: I've been very clear about that. The right to privacy is a right that was created in a law that set forth a (ban on) rights to limit individual passions. And I don't agree with that. So I would make the argument that with President, or Senator or Congressman or whoever Santorum, I would put it back to where it is, the democratic process. If New York doesn't want sodomy laws, if the people of New York want abortion, fine. I mean, I wouldn't agree with it, but that's their right. But I don't agree with the Supreme Court coming in.

Note that nothing really happened to Santorum until years after the interview. Democrats asked for him to resign in 2003 but unlike Trent Lott the republicans ignored this and it didn't become a big story.

In 2004 it was a big deal to the Republican base that Santorum both endorsed and stumped for his fellow Republican Senator Arlen Specter against a primary challenge by a man named Pat Toomey. Arlen Specter almost got 50.8%, Pat Toomey got 49.8%. Santorum was seen at this time as a political assest and not kryponite.

In 2006 though Rick Santorum lost to a Democrat named Bob Casey with Casey getting 58.6% and Santorum getting 41.3% (a difference of 17.3%) It is arguable that the general fall of the republicans in 2006 combine with the Dan Savage.

Now Arlen Specter ran for Senate in 2010, knowing he would get primary out Specter ran as a Democrat and not a Republican, he lost the Democrat nomination though to a guy named Joe Sestak 53.8% of the vote and Arlen Specter with 46.2%. Joe Sestak though lost against Pat Toomey the Republican 51.0% for Toomey and 49.0% for Sestak.
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would you stop using that word? It is gross. *NM* - 04/01/2012 01:48:45 PM 572 Views
What's your word for it? *NM* - 04/01/2012 03:43:44 PM 524 Views
Rövsmör. *NM* - 04/01/2012 09:50:21 PM 521 Views
Den var ny för mig. - 06/01/2012 12:12:07 AM 684 Views
yeah that it so funny - 04/01/2012 03:05:59 PM 933 Views
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so now that the gays have broken that contract they are fair game? - 05/01/2012 06:37:52 PM 691 Views
Question have you read the Santorum interview? *NM* - 05/01/2012 06:50:24 PM 487 Views
no I try to avoid him - 06/01/2012 06:17:45 PM 795 Views
That's too harsh. - 06/01/2012 07:29:05 PM 909 Views
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don't forget.... - 05/01/2012 02:27:49 AM 923 Views
do you still pretend that it isn't political? - 05/01/2012 03:14:25 PM 869 Views
I'm sorry - 05/01/2012 03:52:57 PM 972 Views
funny how it always woks out that way - 05/01/2012 06:44:55 PM 774 Views
Believe what you will, but my wok skills are poor - 05/01/2012 07:32:17 PM 937 Views
You should ask one of the gays to help you. I hear the gays are good at cooking. *NM* - 06/01/2012 01:54:21 AM 614 Views
Queer stove eye for the straight guy? - 06/01/2012 09:05:48 PM 844 Views
try using more heat and better oil *NM* - 06/01/2012 06:18:19 PM 501 Views
Corn oil? - 06/01/2012 09:05:09 PM 794 Views
Peanut *NM* - 06/01/2012 11:27:49 PM 531 Views
Santorum is a man who believes you must compare homosexual love to bestiality and pedophilia - 05/01/2012 04:42:26 AM 944 Views
and Savage is a Man who believes that vulgar personal attacks - 05/01/2012 03:12:42 PM 1091 Views
Why should a person tolerate intolerance? (Serious question.) *NM* - 05/01/2012 08:46:05 PM 645 Views
The question boils down to why should someone tolerate what they think is wrong. - 05/01/2012 10:53:40 PM 905 Views
and when santorum tells you that your lifestyle is worse than pedophilia and bestiality? - 06/01/2012 03:34:52 AM 860 Views
To be fair... - 06/01/2012 05:32:31 AM 1004 Views
You are correct - 06/01/2012 01:21:18 PM 1058 Views
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Santourm is - 07/01/2012 04:24:45 AM 980 Views
I'm fairly sure your theory is wrong. - 06/01/2012 10:42:14 PM 1031 Views
so Obama offended me by attending a racist America hating church - 06/01/2012 05:32:14 PM 882 Views
Those are really not equivalent. - 06/01/2012 04:18:37 PM 822 Views
Re: Those are really not equivalent. - 06/01/2012 10:27:11 PM 952 Views
This. - 07/01/2012 01:35:43 PM 844 Views
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I find myself agreeing with you recently - 06/01/2012 08:38:37 PM 940 Views
dude, gross! *NM* - 04/01/2012 04:39:34 PM 510 Views
Dear Iowa, - 04/01/2012 08:04:09 PM 943 Views
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Is he a bigger long shot than Santorum, though? Gingrich? Bachman? CAIN!? - 07/01/2012 01:34:47 AM 950 Views
Yes, for the reason you state. - 07/01/2012 03:04:39 PM 910 Views
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All of the republican candidates are pipe dreams. - 09/01/2012 08:56:57 PM 763 Views
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So is women's health. About 50% of US. *NM* - 13/01/2012 01:46:15 AM 551 Views
Um... - 10/01/2012 03:54:53 PM 859 Views
is an ass - 10/01/2012 05:10:09 PM 995 Views
I would like to see that enforced. - 10/01/2012 05:39:22 PM 1338 Views
So segregation when done by private businesses is ok? - 11/01/2012 02:20:32 PM 1039 Views
Define "OK." - 11/01/2012 08:29:09 PM 919 Views
Paul is an equal opportunity infuriator, to borrow Vivien's word. - 09/01/2012 10:56:57 PM 923 Views
I agree with you completely. - 10/01/2012 12:06:19 PM 946 Views
while I, of course, disagree with your conclusion. - 10/01/2012 02:21:46 PM 1376 Views
Re: while I, of course, disagree with your conclusion. - 10/01/2012 07:38:39 PM 938 Views
Ron Paul's biggest problem is isn't a republican - 10/01/2012 04:18:16 PM 945 Views
The original santorum 2003 interview for those who want to know - 07/01/2012 05:32:00 AM 1145 Views

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