Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum

Richard John Santorum (born May 10, 1958), commonly known as Rick Santorum, is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 from a suburban Pittsburgh district and to the U.S. Senate in 1994. Santorum is a Republican who currently is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the number three job in the party leadership. In recent years, Santorum's comments and public statements, especially on social issues such as same-sex marriage, have made him a highly controversial figure. He is up for re-election in the November 2006 elections. He announced in 2005 that he would not run for President in the 2008 election.

Personal background

Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia. His father was an immigrant from Italy. Santorum received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. After graduating he became an administrative assistant to state Senator J. Doyle Corman (until 1986) and director of the Pennsylvania Senate local government committee (until 1984, when he became the director of the Pennsylvania Senate Transportation Committee (1984–1986). His wife, Karen Garver Santorum, is the author of a book on etiquette. [1]

He and his wife have six children, Elizabeth Anne, Richard John ("Johnny"), Jr., Daniel James, Sarah Maria, Peter Kenneth, and Patrick Francis. Their son Gabriel Michael was born prematurely in 1996--at 20 weeks--and died two hours after being born. Instead of taking the baby to a funeral home, Rick and his wife brought the palm size Gabriel home to show to their other children (then ages four, six, and eight), take photos and sing to the newborn. [2] Karen used the experience to write a book, Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum ISBN 1568145284. Earlier in the pregnancy, a sonogram had revealed their unborn child's closed posterior urethral valve and they had been informed of the low probability of his survival to birth.

In 1986, he received a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law, and was admitted to the bar and began a practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In 1990, at age 32, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives defeating a seven-term Democratic incumbent; he served two terms (January 3, 1991–January 3, 1995). He was elected to the Senate in 1994, defeating the incumbent Democrat Harris Wofford, and was re-elected in 2000.

Santorum attends a Catholic church near Washington, DC. Other church members include former FBI head Louis Freeh, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and formerly, Robert Hanssen, FBI turncoat spy.

Santorum has been active in welfare reform and government accountability. He is a pro-life conservative, favoring legislation against abortion. Although he's personally against abortion and has expressed disapproval of homosexual practices, he has also said he is comfortable if states decided these questions themselves via their elected officials instead of judicial courts.

In September of 2004, Santorum stated his intention to run for United States Senate Republican Whip in 2006. However, he lost by a one-vote margin.

Santorum is widely seen as one of the more ideologically conservative members of the Senate and has come under a great deal of criticism regarding many of his views. Consequently, he is high on the Democratic Party's list of senators to defeat in 2006 (see U.S. Senate election, 2006).

Legislation and issues

In 2001, Santorum tried unsuccessfully to insert language into the No Child Left Behind bill that would require that "a full range of views" on human origins be taught in public schools. This Santorum Amendment attempted to relativize the teaching of biological evolution in U.S. public classrooms. The amendment would have required schools to discuss controversies surrounding scientific topics, and gave the theory of evolution as an example; many people interpreted this to mean that alternative, non-scientific theories like intelligent design would have to be taught in science classrooms.

The Senate passed a weaker non-binding version of the amendment, which two Ohio Congressmen have invoked to suggest that the state should include "intelligent design" in its science standards. During an interview with National Public Radio in 2005, Santorum clarified his views saying that he is "not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom."

Santorum and John Kerry (D-MA) are the lead sponsors of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA), which would require employers to accommodate the religious observances of their employees as long as providing such accommodations will not impose an "undue hardship" upon the employer. Thus, employers would be encouraged to afford employees flexible work shifts so that they may observe religious holy days and permit employees to wear religiously required garb at work. Versions of the WRFA have been introduced in 1997, 2000, and 2003 but so far have failed to pass.

Though not a named author of the special Terri Schiavo legislation, Santorum played a key role in shepherding the bill through the Senate to a vote on March 20, 2005. Santorum has frequently stated that he does not believe a "right to privacy" exists under the Constitution, even within marriage. Santorum has been particularly critical of the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which held that the Constitution guarantees the right of married couples to buy and use birth control.

On April 14, 2005, Santorum introduced the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005 to "clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service (NWS), and for other purposes". This legislation, if passed, will provide for equal access by the public and private sector to the data collected by the National Weather Service. It prohibits the NWS from going into competition with private sector entities in the publication of weather data. Opponents of this bill contend that it will prevent the NWS from providing user-friendly presentation of the data it collects, thereby assisting private sector weather services retain their own customers. They argue that, since this data is collected at taxpayer expense, it should be made available for free to the public, and not provided solely to private corporations that will charge fees for access. Supporters of this bill deny this and say it does not change the data collection/data dissemination functions of NWS. Moreover it explicitly requires the weather service to provide "simultaneous and equal access" to its information. Critics of the NWS complain that the agency shows favoritism in its data diseemenation practices.

Santorum is also an active supporter of Social Security partial-privatization or "personalization" as the Senator likes to call it. Following the 2004 Presidential election, Santorum has held many forums across Pennsylvania to gauge public views on the subject and to impress the importance of reform. He visited Bucknell University (2005-03-23), Bucks County and Lafayette College (Northampton County) on (2005-02-25), Harrisburg (2005-02-24), Penn State University and Erie County (2005-02-23), Drexel University and Widener University (2005-02-22), and University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (2005-02-21).

2006 re-election campaign

Currently, Robert Patrick Casey, Jr., Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals have announced that they will seek the Democratic nomination to face Santorum in the 2006 election. One poll showed that in a hypothetical matchup, Casey would defeat Santorum by 14 percent [3], widening an earlier 5 percent lead [4].

In March 2005, Santorum criticized Senator Robert C. Byrd for comparing George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. [5] On May 19, 2005, Santorum himself invoked the Nazi dictator, making an analogy between Senate Democrats opposing the anti-filibuster bill and Hitler's occupation of Paris. [6] The Anti-Defamation League responded with a letter to Santorum condemning his remark as "utterly inappropriate and insensitive" and demonstrating "a profound lack of understanding." [7] Pennacchio also promptly criticized Santorum, stating that "as an historian of Holocaust-era Germany, I find Rick Santorum’s comment to be offensive, divisive, and destructive." [8] Pennacchio also posted a video on his website showing Santorum making comments in which he compared the New York Times to Communists, Baathists and Nazis. [9]

2008 U.S. presidential campaign

On July 25, 2005, in an interview with the Washington Post, Santorum said that he had no intention of running for President in 2008. "I have six children ages 4-14. And the idea of coming off a race of the intensity that I am engaged in at this point and turning around and running another two-year campaign for president is not something that I believe is in the best interest of my family," Santorum said, referring to his 2006 campaign. "I can't speak for other politicians but I can speak for me, and my intention is not to run in 2008," he said.

After this was mistaken by many in the media to mean that he was definitely not running in 2008, Santorum later clarified his statement by saying "I wouldn't say the door's - I mean, OK, it's not locked and bolted, but the door itself is closed. It's just not locked". [10]

Santorum told reporters "The reason I leave this little window open is because I have no idea what's going to happen between now and 3 1/2 years from now". Santorum said it would take "a strange, remote set of circumstances" in order to get him to change his mind. [11]

Controversy

Because of his heavily conservative and outspoken views, Santorum has attracted a large amount of controversy and criticism. This controversy and criticsm are particularly directed toward his stances on same-sex marriage, homosexuality, and abortion. His views on social and cultural issues are presented in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

Remarks about homosexuality

Main article: Santorum controversy

A sizeable controversy arose following Santorum's statements about homosexuality in an interview with the Associated Press taped on April 7, 2003 and published April 20, 2003. In response to a question on his position on how to prevent sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, Santorum described homosexual acts as part of a class of deviant sexual behavior, including incest, polygamy, and zoophilia, which threaten society and the family. Furthermore, Santorum stated that he believed consenting adults do not have a Constitutional right to privacy with respect to sexual acts.

Santorum said that the priests were engaged in "a basic homosexual relationship" with "post-pubescent men," and went on to say that he had "a problem with homosexual acts," that the right to privacy "doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution," that "whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, whether it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," and that sodomy laws properly exist to prevent acts which "undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family." When the A.P. reporter asked, "OK, without being too gory or graphic, so if somebody is homosexual, you would argue that they should not have sex?", Santorum replied, "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."

Democratic politicians including the 2004 Democratic presidential candidates, gay rights advocates such as Dan Savage (details), and other liberal commentators condemned the statements, while Republican politicians, religious conservatives, and other conservative commentators supported Santorum and called the condemnations unfair. Some critics argued that Santorum's position may also affect heterosexuals, as Santorum said that he did not believe there is a Constitutional right to engage in private consensual sexual acts.

Santorum did not back down from his remarks, stating that they were not intended to equate homosexuality with incest and adultery, but rather as a critique of the specific legal position that the right to privacy prevents the government from regulating consensual acts among adults (such as bigamy, incest, etc.), because he does not believe that there is a Constitutional right to privacy.

On July 20, 2004, while debating the Federal Marriage Amendment, Santorum said "defending marriage" was the "ultimate homeland security."

In July 2005 Santorum's Director of Communication, Robert Traynham, confirmed speculation that he was gay, describing himself as an "out gay man" who strongly supported Santorum, "a man of principle, he is a man who sticks up for what he believes in." Santorum himself responded to the controversy by praising Traynham and chiding those who made Traynham an object of "bigotry" to get to Santorum. He also said he knew that Traynham was gay.

Residency and tuition controversy

In November 2004, a controversy erupted over education costs for the Senator's children. Santorum's legal address is in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, but he lives most of the year at his home in Leesburg, Virginia near Washington, DC. Santorum's five older children received education through the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School with 80% of tuition costs paid by the Penn Hills School District.

At a meeting in November 2004, the Penn Hills School District announced that it did not believe Santorum met the qualifications for residency status since he and his family spend most of the year in Virginia. They demanded repayment of tuition costs totaling $100,000.

Supporters of the Senator claim that the controversy is politically motivated as the school board is controlled by Democrats and Erin Vecchio, the school board member who first publicly raised the issue, is the chair of the local Democratic Party. They also claim that since Santorum votes in Penn Hills and pays property and school taxes there, he is entitled to the same privileges as any other Penn Hills resident.

After the controversy erupted, Santorum said he would make other arrangements for his children's education, but insists he does not owe the school board any back tuition. In early 2005, both sides agreed to work out a settlement outside the court system. A state appointed hearing officer set a deadline of May 9, 2005 for the parties to submit information relating to the case.

On July 8, 2005, a Pennsylvania state hearing officer ruled that the Penn Hills School District had not filed objections to Santorum's residency in a timely manner and dismissed the complaint, even though the district did follow the guidelines set by the hearing officer in May. Santorum hailed the ruling as a victory against what he termed "baseless and politically motivated charges." He told reporters, "No one's children -- and especially not small, school-age children -- should be used as pawns in the 'politics of personal destruction'." [12]

Comments about the Boston Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal

In 2005, a controversy developed over comments about Boston, Massachusetts that Santorum made in a 2002 article about the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Santorum wrote:

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. 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. [13]

These comments came to wider attention through an opinion column in the Philadelphia Daily News on June 24, 2005. Columnist John Baer cited Santorum's article and wrote:

I'd remind you this is the same Senate leader who recently likened Democrats fighting to save the filibuster to Nazis, who once equated homosexuality with bestiality and who claimed the Catholic priest pedophile scandal in Boston should be no surprise since Boston is "a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America." [14]

Santorum's remarks were criticized, especially in Massachusetts. On July 12, 2005, Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory called on Santorum to explain his statement, and reported that Robert Traynham, Santorum's Director of Communcations, told him: "It's an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases. I think that's what the senator was speaking to." Julie Teer, a spokeswoman for Governor of Massachusetts, Republican Mitt Romney, said, "What happened with the church sex abuse scandal was a tragedy, but it had nothing to do with geography or the culture of Boston." [15]

Later that day Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) delivered a personal rebuke to Santorum on the Senate floor, saying: "The people of Boston are to blame for the clergy sexual abuse? That is an irresponsible, insensitive and inexcusable thing to say." [16] Santorum has stood by his 2002 article and has not apologized.

On July 21, 2005 Rush Limbaugh interviewed Santorum about Kennedy's speech. Santorum said that he was being targeted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which coordinated with the media to publicize Kennedy's speech. He argued that his statement about Boston was taken out of context from an article he had written three years earlier. Santorum agreed with Limbaugh's summary that it was "no surprise that the center of the Catholic Church abuse took place in very liberal, or perhaps the nations most liberal area, Boston." Santorum reiterated his broader theme of a cultural connection: "[I]t's . . . no surprise that the culture affects people's behavior. . . . [T]he liberal culture -- the idea that . . . sexual inhibitions should be put aside and people should be able to do whatever they want to do, has an impact on people and how they behave." When asked why Boston specifically was mentioned, Santorum pointed out in July 2002, the outrage of American Catholics, and his, was focused on the Archdiocese of Boston. [17]

Trivia

In 2003 Dan Savage proposed the neologism santorum as a protest against the senator's views on homosexuality.

Santorum is six feet, two inches (188 cm) tall.

External links

• Santorum's Senate website
• An unedited section of the Associated Press interview
• Video: Speech at the Republican National Convention, 2004.
• "It Takes a Family"