St. Patrick and Rick Santorum

I like Santorum.

I do recall, however, the over the top angry reaction of many faithful Catholics when Santorum had the audacity to not take on the senior Senator of his own state when that Senator (the noxious pretend Republican Arlen Specter) was challenged in the GOP primary by pro-life conservative Pat Toomey. While there was little doubt that Santorum much preferred the Toomey, Santorum also knew that it would be a serious breach of Senatorial and political protocol for a sitting junior Senator to oppose his incumbant senior partner of the same party, and he would be punished severely (probably relegated to ineffective status) by his party’s establishment if he supported Toomey and Toomey was unsuccessful. It was a prudential calculus that many supporters of Toomey, especially pro-life Catholic supporters, interpreted as both cowardice and an indicium that he was not really pro-life. The second charge was palpably stupid, but the first charge was not entirely unfair depending on what one should or might reasonably expect from an elected Senator. While any fair person should concede that Santorum was in a tough spot, subsequent history suggests that he badly miscalculated. Toomey is now a US Senator while Spector is a pretend constitutional law professor (and still a jerk) at Penn. Santorum now practices law (sort of) in Washington, where he is considering a (quixotic) run at the presidency, apparently encouraged by many of the same pro-lifers who through him out of the Senate in 2006 as payback for not supporting Toomey.

All that said, I really do like the guy.

I like Santorum and hope he makes a run for the presidency. I hope he is able to reverse the damage that Pres. Kennedy did to the relationship between religion and politics.