I suppose you all might be expecting me to cheer this guy. Well, surprise! No, not this time. In fact, I even feel a bit sorry for Rick Santorum.
What am I talking about?
This: (Via Right Wing Watch)
Phew! Grumpy old feller ain’t he? Well, he is a Baptist and he is old and he is from Louisiana. I would tend to guess that this sort of thing is basically par for the course; at least with him anyhow. In other words, yeah, he is one of ours. 🙄
For the record, I do not believe for a minute that Rick Santorum believes any of that stuff that Dennis Terry was preaching from his bully pulpit. In fact, he said as much yesterday; over to you ABC NEWS:
MOLINE, Ill. – Rick Santorum told reporters Monday he did not agree with a controversial statement about non-Christians made by a Louisiana pastor at a church service Santorum attended Sunday in Greenwell Springs, La.
[…..]
After an event in Moline Monday evening, Santorum was asked repeatedly by reporters if he agreed with the pastor’s words.“If the question is, do I agree with his statement that America shouldn’t do that? No, if he was speaking for himself he’s obviously allowed to believe what he wants to believe but, obviously I believe in freedom of religion and all religions are welcome and should be. I think I’ve made that pretty clear throughout my campaign that I believe very much in freedom of religion, and folks should be able to worship whoever they want to worship and bring their thoughts in the public square and have at it and give them the opportunity to make their faith claims, and make their claims to reason and any other claims. That’s what America’s all about. As far as I’m concerned they should be here and make their arguments the best they can,” said Santorum.
Santorum said he did not clap when the pastor made these comments.
“I didn’t clap when he said that. I do remember him saying that, I said, well, I wasn’t quite sure he was saying it for himself, I wasn’t quite listening to everything to be honest with you. But I wasn’t sure whether he was speaking for himself or speaking generally, but I didn’t clap when he said that because it’s not how I feel.”
Here is why I feel a bit sorry for Rick Santorum. Because quite frankly, there are times when these guys who are running for President, will find themselves in awful situations like these and to be quite honest with you; there is not much he can do about it. I mean, it would be totally disrespectful for Mr. Santorum to try and interrupt, or worse, get up and leave. Now, I am sure liberals would think he should have done that; but some things are just best left alone.
For the record, and this is for the Conservatives and Republicans who will actually read this; I do not fault this Pastor for what he believes. Pastor Dennis Terry is an old salt from the America that once was; and I do not think he should be punished for his remarks, no more than I would want a far-leftist liberal Democrat punished for he believes. Like Rick Santorum said, that is what makes America great, diversity of opinion and beliefs. If we all believed alike, this Country would be more boring than watching a Martha Stewart peep show.
I have been known to fault Rick Santorum on many things; one being his big Government Statist stupidity. But, this one here, I just cannot muster the outrage. I mean, it just is not his fault that Pastor Dennis Terry believes the way that he does.
Liberals who are not happy about it: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Rumproast, Mediaite, his vorpal sword, Washington Monthly, Wonkette, CBS DC, Holy Bullies …, The Agonist and Good As You