This train of thought has been bouncing around right-wing circles for a week or so, but leave it to Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum to summarize it perfectly.
“Kerry brought this upon himself by making the convention all about his military service,” said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). “He stuck his jaw out on this one and now has to deal with the consequences.”
It’s the kind of remark that’s so stupid, you have to wonder if Dems made it up to make Santorum appear foolish.
Santorum’s quote is referring, of course, to the completely discredited Swiftboat lies against Kerry’s service record. If we’re to follow Santorum’s logic, Kerry isn’t a victim of a malicious and slanderous attack, he’s the instigator of the attacks. Indeed, Kerry “brought this upon himself” by running for president and reminding voters that he, unlike the current commander-in-chief, is a decorated war hero who put his life on the line for his country.
Santorum would have us believe the wiser course of action — the path that would have prevented the Swiftboat gang from lying — would be to keep secret the fact that Kerry fought, bled, and killed for his country. If Kerry didn’t want people to make up garbage about his past, then he shouldn’t have mentioned his past. Right-wing logic at its finest.
Remember, this idiocy isn’t coming from just some talk-radio loudmouth; it’s coming from a U.S. senator and the fourth-ranking Republican in the GOP Senate caucus.
It also raises the specter of a new political paradigm that can be applied forever more — even to Santorum himself.
After all, Santorum, perhaps unintentionally, has presented a truly bizarre approach — if you emphasize an issue important to you, it’s acceptable for your political opponents to lie about it — that could dramatically change the landscape.
For example, Santorum “stuck his jaw out” on the issue of gay rights last year, saying that gay people who become intimate can and should be prosecuted under the law. If we follow the newly articulated “Santorum principle,” his efforts on the issue offer his critics — say, me and anyone else I can round up — an opportunity to make up whatever we want about Santorum’s sex life.
Indeed, if we’re to follow the logic of the “Santorum principle” and use the Swiftboat attacks as a model, we can then take our fabricated attacks about Santorum’s personal life and broadcast them on national TV during his next campaign.
It’s not as if he’d be in a position to complain, because he would have “brought this upon himself.”