I hope he rips him a new asshole! Santorum is everything I despise about the neo GOP.
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Kennedy rips Santorum comments
Says senator owes victims apology
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | July 14, 2005
WASHINGTON -- In a rare personal rebuke of a colleague, Senator Edward M. Kennedy lambasted Senator Rick Santorum from the Senate floor yesterday, demanding an apology for the Pennsylvania Republican's online comments connecting Boston's ''liberalism" to the child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
''Senator Santorum has shown a deep and callous insensitivity to the victims and their suffering, in an apparent attempt to score political points with some of the most extreme members of the fringe right wing of his party," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and one of the most senior lawmakers in Washington. ''Boston-bashing might be in vogue with some Republicans, but Rick Santorum's statements are beyond the pale."
Kennedy said Santorum ''owes an immediate apology to the tragic, long-suffering victims of sexual abuse and their families in Boston, in Massachusetts, in Pennsylvania, and around this country."
Earlier this week, Santorum stood by comments he made on a Catholic website in 2002 when he 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. In a brief interview with the Globe on Tuesday, Santorum reiterated his view that the ''basic liberal attitude" in Boston fostered an environment where sexual abuse of children could occur.
Santorum, 47, a devout Catholic and a possible presidential contender in 2008, was not in the Senate chamber during Kennedy's denunciation of Santorum and defense of Boston. Asked to comment yesterday, Santorum's office deferred to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which characterized Kenendy's remarks as a political attack meant to help Robert P. Casey Jr., Santorum's probable Democratic opponent in what is expected to be a tight Senate race next year.
''What we have here is Bobby Casey Jr.'s Boston all-star team taking a turn at bat attacking Rick Santorum," said Dan Ronayne, spokesman for the political action committee, which raises money for Republican Senate candidates.
Referring to the Massachusetts delegation, Democratic Party leaders, and a liberal interest group, Ronayne said, ''Guess we can add Ted Kennedy, [Representative] Barney Frank, and [Senator] John Kerry to Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, and MoveOn to Bobby Casey Jr.'s group of attack surrogates."
While lawmakers frequently engage in heated public debate about policy, it is highly unusual for a senator to make a personal reference to a colleague, no matter how much the two may spar in private. The speech was a departure for Kennedy, a 43-year Senate veteran who has close working relationships with many Republicans and who normally adheres to institutional traditions.
Senate debate procedure bars senators from impugning one another's character, making offensive references about another senator's state, or speaking about the House of Representatives at all. But those rules are open to interpretation, and Kennedy said he had followed them because he was referring to Santorum's speech, not his character.
''The historic courtesy is that you tell someone if you [are going to] refer to a speech he made" on the Senate floor, and he called Santorum in advance, Kennedy said in an interview yesterday. ''It was his opportunity to apologize, and he refused. The fact that he refused to apologize, I thought, with comments that equate the academic excellence [of the Boston area's universities] with somehow fostering child abuse was irresponsible and inexcusable."
Kennedy heralded his state's accomplishments in academics and community service. ''Massachusetts ranks in the top 10 states in the nation when it comes to addressing the needs of at-risk and vulnerable children. . . . Pennsylvania does not rank in the top 10," the senator said, his voice tinged with anger.
Bay State officials, including Kerry, and a group representing sexual abuse victims derided Santorum yesterday and echoed Kennedy's call for an apology.
''As a prosecutor in Massachusetts, I saw some of the worst criminals who had abused children, and not once did I hear them hide behind Senator Santorum's bizarre claim that the state was responsible for their acts," said a statement Kerry issued. ''Rick Santorum owes an apology to the families of abuse victims and an apology to the faithful who fill the pews of Massachusetts churches every Sunday."
At a housing event yesterday in Dorchester, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly called the remarks by Santorum ''an embarrassment to his ambition and it's an embarrassment to his party. It shows a lack of understanding of the breadth and scope of this problem," Reilly said
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said, ''It's hard to understand how he could repeat and stand by such misguided and harmful comments."
''Abusive clergy and complicit bishops are liberal and conservative," said a statement Clohessy released. ''The crimes they commit have nothing to do with political philosophy."
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
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