Santorum Roundup

Atrios at Eschaton is doing a great job following up on Sen. Rick Santorum's statements regarding his belief that we have no right to privacy and that the government should be able to regulate private sex acts in our own homes, along with the reactions to his statement.

One statement Santorum made that, so far, isn't getting quite as much attention as the initial quote likening consensual sex between adults to bigamy, incest, adultery and polygamy is his contention that teens who were molested by priests were just engaging in a consensual, adult relationship.

In this case, what we're talking about, basically, is priests who were having sexual relations with post-pubescent men. We're not talking about priests with 3-year-olds, or 5-year-olds. We're talking about a basic homosexual relationship.

This is truly an outrageous statement, and is no different than claiming a rape victim "asked for it" or otherwise brought the attack on herself.

As for Santorum's contention that the victims of these priests were engaged in just a "basic homosexual relationship", Atrios provides several quotes regarding former priest John Geoghan, including this:

I felt a little funny about it," McSorley recalled in an interview. "I was 12 years old and he was an old man."

Riding home after getting ice cream, McSorley says, Geoghan consoled him. But then he patted his upper leg and slid his hand up toward his crotch. "I froze up," McSorley said. "I didn't know what to think. Then he put his hand on my genitals and started masturbating me. I was petrified." McSorely added that Geoghan then began masturbating himself.

I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound like any kind of a "basic relationship" - hetero- or homosexual - to me.

Atrios also notes that Ari Fleischer claimed today that the President didn't have any comments on Santorum's statement because "typically" the President doesn't comment on Supreme Court cases, rulings or findings. That quote is accompanied by a quote from the President's remarks on the affirmative action case involving the University of Michigan that was recently argued before the Supreme Court.

Blogspot has been having some problems lately with permalinks to specific entries in blogs maintained there, so it's best just to go to Eschaton to check out his posts. I'm sure we've not yet heard the last of it, either.

Posted by thorswitch at April 23, 2003 10:12 PM | TrackBack