Bono won’t be dedicating any songs to Santorum

October 12, 2005

A number of readers have written in this week with panicky notes about U2 hosting a fundraiser for Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum. I’m pleased to report this isn’t true.

Newsmax, a right-wing “news” outlet, got the ball rolling with a report that seemed to connect the rock group and the senator. Liberals, who’ve counted on U2’s Bono as an ally on progressive causes, felt betrayed. Of all politicians to help, U2 picked Santorum?

The truth is, supporters of Santorum’s re-election campaign are using a U2 concert to host a political fundraiser. National Review contacted the senator’s camp, which explained that the event is “totally independent of Bono or U2.”

While we can now let U2 off the hook, Santorum may still have some explaining to do. As far as the senator is concerned, the band is a blight on the culture. Isn’t it rather hypocritical to condemn U2 and then use one of its concerts to raise money?

In either case, you can take Joshua Tree out of the garbage now; everything’s fine.

Did Santorum actually ever condemn U2? I suspect he still thinks it’s a kind of submarine.

  • Even if Bono did endorse MoD (Man on Dog), that doesn’t mean I would stop listening to him. That would only make us as bad as the Republicans who threw away all their Bruce albums after he signed on to the Kerry campaign, or those Southern radio stations that burned Dixie Chicks CDs.

  • Reading through the excerpt from Santorum’s book – I’m not so sure he’s slamming U2. If you read it objectively, he could be right in step with the interpretation of the song. The issue hinges on whether Ricky thinks Bono believes in this No-Fault Freedom thing he’s accusing liberals of espousing. We may be making that leap because we know where Bono’s heart lies on the political spectrum – but to be fair, it’s not at all obvious that Santorum is down on U2.

    I take greater fault with Santorum’s basic logic. His strawman of No-Fault Freedom is more a libertarian idea than a liberal one…thekeez

  • Even if Bono did endorse MoD (Man on Dog), that doesn’t mean I would stop listening to him. That would only make us as bad as the Republicans who threw away all their Bruce albums after he signed on to the Kerry campaign, or those Southern radio stations that burned Dixie Chicks CDs.

    I disagree. The GOP consistently out-fundraises the Democracts, so I vote everyday with my dollar. If I know someone supports candidates and politicians I don’t, I’ll take my business elsewhere as often as possible.

    Hitting them in the pocketbook is the only way to promote change.

  • Here’s an explanation: The Wachovia Center in Philadelphia is sports arena, where hockey and basketball games are played and concerts occur. Comcast, the cable company and media conglomerate, has a large financial interest in the teams and the arena. When the Wachovia Center was built a few years ago, it was built with the expressed intent of improving the bottom line of the owners by including large luxury suites to view all events. When a suite is lease, the leasee–usually a corporation–has access to all event. In fact, some leasees rent out suites for certain events. Corporations usually use the suites for clients and employees (for mainly hockey and basketball games)–and all the while they write-off the expense on their taxes. So, some corporation is letting their suite be used for the Santorum fund-raiser, while the U2 concert blares on.

    The real questions are: Which suite is it; which corporation (or wealthy individual) leases it; and was it rented out?

    P.S. — Those questions are not quite as good as: What did know, and when did you know it?

  • Are there libs who would “Dixie Chick” U2 over this kind of thing? I hope not. That kind of stuff is sooooo junior high. If you have to check ideologies before purchasing the music, you must not really be into the music.

    I understand this kind of thing when it comes to boycotting a corporation like Walmart or Exxon. Because you can get the same stuff elsewhere, and Exxon’s oil is just as good as Shell’s. But when it comes to boycotting an artist, that’s just stupid. Listen to the music for the music, not to subsidize the artist.

  • Doctor, if any artist were to actively SUPPORT MoD, there’s no way I could enjoy their music anymore. And since Bono goes out of his way to make his politics a public part of the band, I would especially feel that way about U2. You can call it juvenile, but I don’t think I could separate the artist from the art in such an egregious case of supporting evil (i.e., I would not feel the same way about supporting a run-of-the-mill Republican).

    I don’t think that I would *actively* boycott, nor make any show of destroying my existing U2 collection.

    On another subject, if the Senator can’t at least identify U2 as a spy plane and not a submarine, I can’t picture him as Prez.

  • Guys, guys, guys.

    Doesn’t my explanation do the trick? Bono won’t even know that the Santorum crowd is in the house. What’s amazing is that Rethugs (the country club set or the Christian Right) like U2 music that much.

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