Look, I think the U.S. would be better off if he wasn’t in the Senate, but I never had him figured for a spineless jellyfish either. I mean, he’s been singing the ID song for years, all of a sudden he has “disagreements” with how the Thomas More Center handled the case? I call BS.
There have been many politicians I have strongly disagreed with, such as Jesse Helms, but I did respect the way he at least had the courage of his convictions. I have no respect for a guy who heads for the hills just as soon as he hears the branch start to creak.
I don’t like Santorum, but unless you can find a quote of him defending the Dover school board after their religious hijinks began to be presented in court, I’m not sure you have a good case to revile him, here.
Basically, he has not changed his expressed views on ID, but has noted that a law service that would be so stupid as to take this case to court does not deserve financial or moral support since they are hurting the cause.
So, he was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that the proponents of ID might have a religious motivation? Where’s Claude Rains in Casablanca when you need him? I ain’t buying it. Please keep in mind that I’m not slagging him for carrying the ID banner, even though I think the whole thing is silly. I’m slagging him for acting like a poker player who just lost a hand and now wants his chips back.
Santorum is a devout Catholic and the Catholic church supports evolution (or at least believe it is compatible with conservative Christianity). It’s possible that Santorum has no problem with evolution being taught in schools over I.D… (Not that he isn’t a total tool and nutcase on other issues, but as the bromide goes even the blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.)
Of course last I heard Santorum was just barely leading his opponent for the Republican nomination, let alone the Democratic contender, so certainly it could be a political move. Giving the ape his due, there are few politicians Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative who would stand their ground on a fault line in an election year in practicing the Art of the Possible.
Really.
I mean, let’s just put it this way: with real one-time-dissident scientific theories, such as Big Bang, Continental Drift, or the K/T Impact, there was no active lobbying to enforce a requirement that students must be advised of the dissident theory. Advocates of the theory just kept plugging at it until the accumulated observations/experiments/mathematics became persuasive enough to open up the establishment.
Part of the Santorum backtrack is also probably linked to how the School Board that passed the ID provision were SWEPT in the last election. Sweat for me, now, Rickie boy…
Could it be? Are we witnessing the Gotterdammerung of Santorum? After he’s gone, are you PA guys gonna change all the locks and keep him out? He’s slipping. He’s on the run. Do your duty now and finish the job. Put him out of our misery
I don’t know. He was running some pretty good-looking ads a few weeks ago talking about how he saved Social Security for people over 65. The ads even included a phone number for people to call and thank him. I nearly called and pointed out that his policy would have wrecked it for people my age.
On the other hand, it shouldn’t be so easy for Mr. Santorum to back away from this. Here’s a link. It seems Mr. Santorum serves on the advisory board of the Thomas More Law Center, who defended the people requiring the Dover schools teach Intelligent Design, although he’s now ending his affiliation with them. There’s also a slight matter of this quote from the linked article:
Mr. Santorum has had to do a lot of back-pedalling of late on various issues, and, if you look at politics purely as a game, he should be vulnerable. The only question is will his opponent take advantage of that vulnerability. Speaking as someone who opposes Mr. Santorum on most issues, I really hope he does, but given the Democrats’ track record over the past few years, I wouldn’t bet on it.
