Santorum speaks

The fact that Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum compared Dems to Nazis yesterday from the Senate floor did not go completely unnoticed by political reporters. As far as I can tell, there were no stand-alone reports on Santorum’s slur, but his remarks were included in many stories about the ongoing fight over judicial nominees.

The senator’s office apparently received enough calls about this that he was compelled to respond.

Santorum issued his own clarification yesterday evening, stating that the reference to Hitler was “meant to dramatize the principle of an argument, not to characterize my Democratic colleagues.”

“My point was that it is preposterous for someone to trample a well-established principle, and then accuse his opponents of acting unlawfully when they try to reestablish that principle,” Santorum said. “Nevertheless, it was a mistake and I meant no offense.”

“No offense”? Let me get this straight. Dems want to preserve a 214-year-old Senate procedure, which Republicans have used repeatedly, and Santorum disagrees. He therefore feels justified in comparing Dems to Hitler, but he “meant no offense“?

Maybe Santorum is on some kind of prescription medication voters don’t know about. Or maybe he’s suffered some kind of serious head trauma that has impaired his judgment. Either way, the man has “issues.”

Some commenter on other blog gave the best response for this:

In Santorum’s defense, he’s really, really stupid.

  • The “really, really stupid” defense comment was by a commenter on John Cole’s site, Balloon Juice. That guy (he is NOT Juan Cole of Informed Comment) is a conservative in the old-fashioned meaning of the term and, while as a liberal I certainly have a different point of view, he sometimes shocks me by his similar views on the idiocy of the right-wingnuts. It is bracing to realize that, in fact, the cabal now controlling the Republican Party is a distinct minority in the country, and gives me hope that the pendulum will soon swing back our way.

    Regarding the possibility that Santorum’s impaired judgment can be explained by some recent but undisclosed head trauma, that assumes a priori that at one time his judgment was not impaired. I won’t hold my breath while someone provides empirical evidence by which that might be documented!

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