Kennedy Rips Santorum for 2002 Column

[maddezmom]

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - In a rare personal attack on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) accused Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday of being self-righteous and insensitive for a column he wrote three years ago linking Boston's liberalism to the sex abuse scandal in its Catholic diocese.

Santorum, R-Pa., wrote in the July 2002 column for Catholic Online that promoting alternative lifestyles feeds such aberrant behavior as priests molesting children.

"Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture," Santorum wrote. "When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

In a speech, Kennedy, a Democrat, called for Santorum to retract his remarks and apologize to the people of Boston and Massachusetts.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050713/ap_on_go_co/kennedy_santorum_1

[napi21]

1. It's good that he said this publicly, but retract and apologize?

It was 3 years ago! OLd Ricky does crap like this every day! Call him out on his current stuff!!!!

[krkaufman]

2. What's up w/ the headline? (Or what brought the 2002 article back up?)

If Santorum wrote this article article back in 2002, why has it suddenly bubbled back to the top?

[maddezmom]

4. here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1623993&mesg_id=1623993

[krkaufman]

14. Ah, just some interviewer following up on the old comments

Thanks for the info, maddezmom.

[damntexdem]

11. Who cares?

So long as it DOES.

[krkaufman]

13. I do. Because I'm curious. Thanks for your feedback. n/t

[wookie294]

3. STOP REPUBLICAN PEDOPHILIA !!

http://www.armchairsubversive.com/

* Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

* Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

* Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

* Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

* Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

* Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

* Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

* Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

* Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

* Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

* Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was charged with molesting his 9-year old step-daughter after including her in an anti-Gore television commercial.

* Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

* Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

* Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

* Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

* Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

* Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

* Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

* Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

* Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly had sex with a 16 year old girl when he was 28.

* Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

* Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

* Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

* Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

* Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

* Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

* Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

* Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

* Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

* Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

* Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

* Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

* Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.

* Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.

* Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

* Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.

* Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

* Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

* Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

* Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

* Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

* Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

* Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

* Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

* Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

* Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

[underpants]

6. Great summary there

bookmarking

[wookie294]

8. I wish the Democratic Party would research Republican pedophiles

If the Dems don't fight dirty and childish like the Republicans do, then they can forget about taking back the Congress. Alot of dumb voters on this planet actually believe the shit Santorum and Gingrich say.

[CBHagman]

5. Here's a link to the Santorum article.

And PLEASE make sure you are not eating while reading it.

http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=30

[Miss Chybil]

7. Excuse me... Child molesters are the cause - not the effect - of a "sick"

society.

[Zenlitened]

9. The reporter, Lolita Baldor, works out of AP's Washington Bureau

E-mail them and let them know that Kennedy was not reacting solely to a years-old column, but to Santorum's reiteration of those comments just this week.

E-mail the AP bureau at: [e-mail]

Share a link to a story that places this in its proper context:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/13/santorum_resolute_on_boston_rebuke?mode=PF

Santorum resolute on Boston rebuke
Insists liberalism set stage for abuse

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | July 13, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.

''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.

''If you have a world view that I'm describing . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.

Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, ''It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

[damntexdem]

10. Let's see: sexual abuse starting in the 1940s is due to ...

the promotion of alternative lifestyles when? Well maybe -- if promoting 'Rosie the Riveter' was what was at fault. I guess those impressionable priests in the 1940s thought that if mothers were getting jobs in war factories, that meant the priests should be screwing the mothers' kids. Hmm, the connection isn't clear to me; but I guess the culture was different back then -- obviously, it must have been more immoral than it is now. ;-)

[doubleplusgood]

12. isn't Utah one of the top child abuse states ?

thought I remember seeing some stats on child abuse & noting that the highest incidences seemed occur in the more "red" states.