Bono, who has worked closely with him over the years, got it right: ''I would suggest that Rick Santorum has a kind of Tourette's disease; he will always say the most unpopular thing. But on our issues, he has been a defender of the most vulnerable.''
It's true. Rick has always been a defender of the most vulnerable. Those so vulnerable, they are not even alive. Like his dead "son" Gabriel, a stillborn fetus his wife lost at 20 weeks. For those who haven't read the tale, it's required reading. It's also something I hope Bono takes a peak at before he ever speaks again in support of our nation's most prominent theocrat:
In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.
Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.
"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.
He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described — "a 20-week-old fetus" — on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."
I understand how tragedy can mutate a person's worldview. I respect, and have compassion, for how that can happen. I have no respect or compassion for a man who decides he will impose that mutated worldview on the masses he represents. And Pennsylvania agrees with me. And that is why Rick Santorum, the third most powerful Republican in the Senate, is going to lose in 8 days.
10/31/2006 12:00 PM
bill wrote:
Santorum is clearly and has been outside even the Republican party mainstream. Republican right wing has never been able to break that 30% thresh hold even though they captured the Republican Party. Even if Republicans maintain their hold on the Senate and God forbid the House, it will be a different Congress. Some Republicans have seen the light and learned through extremely close elections that right-wing nut ideas just aren't selling in middle America. With Bush now lame-duck, war growing in unpopularity, the 2008 Presidential election will assume front and center--McCain, Frist vs. Hillary, Edwards, Obama. On election night, watch returns for Kentucky's congressional races in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th districts. Polls close at 6 pm and results start coming in soon thereafter, although western Kentucky is an hour behind on central daylight savings time. DCCC is now putting big $ into these races, and before they haven't been seen as top tier contested races by the DCCC. These seats are now all held by Republicans. If even 1 of these seats go Democratic, it could be the start of trend for the night. If 2 go democratic, it could be a tsunami. Reply to this
11/9/2006 1:20 AMdorrk wrote:
Hm. Weird story about them taking the dead baby home, but you may be a little to coarse in your reference to it:
"Like his dead 'son' Gabriel, a stillborn fetus his wife lost at 20 weeks."
Especially given this excerpt from the article:
"Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb."
Maybe his religious faith is justified: isn't it a miracle that a "still-born" baby lived for two-hours? Or maybe it wasn't "still-born."
Maybe you should try watching your own tragically premature baby die before trying to minimize the experience as somehow politically untenable. Gross that it wouldn't occur to you to edit that. Reply to this
I stand corrected. You're right, it was not a stillborn baby, and I shouldn't have described Gabriel as such. However, even you admit this is a freakish story. It's exactly the kind of story Pennsylvanians decided they were done with on Tuesday. Reply to this
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