"Our goal is exposing Rick Santorum to everyone who cares that his extreme agenda and his harsh and often hostile brand of politics has sought to divide us, coarsened our public conversation and simply failed to improve the lives of most Americans." SantorumExposed.com, 2005, web site defunct

Rick Santorum is powerful and dangerous in the most insidious way. He voices, out loud and unapologetically, all the self-righteous, racist, sexist, crackpot beliefs that most politicians try to package in more "politically correct" terms.  

Fortunately for Pennsylvania and America, Santorum lost his US Senate seat in 2006. Not before he made many black marks on our system of government.

And not before he made some incredibly outlandish statements on a variety of personal and political and faith-based issues. 

Now he's back, with a vengeance. Spouting the same twisted messages. Don't be fooled into thinking his base is only fanatical Evangelicals. Right Wingnuts everywhere are finding his message, garbled though it may be, appealing.

I've been getting more concerned that no one seems to be taking the threat Rick Santorum could pose to our freedoms and liberties seriously. In any position of national power.

I did I little digging in the archives of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. If you have any doubts about the dangerous mind of the former Junior Senator from Pennsylvania, let's shine some light on the attitudes, agenda and often offensive statements of Rick Santorum and let his words speak for themselves.:

On Gay Marriage
"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."

Is this guy for real? Oh yeah, Big time. But does he have a dog?

On poverty-stricken unwed mothers:
"The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong."

So selling drugs or resorting to prostitution is more cost-effective?

On a woman's right to choose:
"But unlike abortion today, in most states even the slaveholder did not have the unlimited right to kill his slave."

Noooo. I wouldn't touch that one with a ten foot pole.

On working mothers:
"And for some parents, the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home."

Yeah, we want to work to pay the mortgage and buy food because staying home is a pain in the ass.

On teaching the theory of evolution:
"I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom. What we should be teaching are the problems and holes ... in the theory of evolution"

I'm not comfortable with religion being taught in the science classroom.

On religious views and politics:
"All of us have heard people say, 'I privately am against abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research, cloning. But who am I to decide that it's not right for somebody else?' It sounds good, but it is the corruption of freedom of conscience." National Catholic Reporter

On Senate Democrats and use of the filibuster:
"I mean, imagine, the rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judges. Broken by the other side two years ago, and the audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule. It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942, "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine."

How dumb do you have to be to invoke modern history's most evil name in furtherance of your cause? About as dumb as Rick Santorum, I guess.

On the disastrous Hitler comment above:
"I compared it [the filibuster] to something that Adolf Hitler didn’t do, as opposed to something he did do. And that’s a big difference. It was an attempt to make a joke. You probably have learned this in your career, I’m still learning that you don’t make jokes using Hitler."

There you go. A United States Senator has to learn not to make jokes about Adolf Hitler. That's the biggest joke of all. Now he's making a run for President. If we don't do something to stop him, the joke will be on us.

On priests molesting children:
"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. Which, again, according to the world view sense is a perfectly fine relationship as long as it's consensual between people. If you view the world that way, and you say that's fine, you would assume that you would see more of it."

HUH? Read that again. He's saying that because priests were having sex with teenagers, it must have been consensual, and therefore okay.

On why priests in Boston molested children:
"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."

Right. Liberals made them do it. This one makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Or his.

Santorum told "Christianity Today" that "faith is a source of morality; it's a source of virtue; it's a source of reason. It's a tremendous influence on my worldview."

Great. Another member of The God Squad claiming to make critical decisions for America based primarily on his dedication to fundamental Christian beliefs.  

Somebody tell me, please, when did Jesus ever say, "Love thy brother as thyself, unless he doesn't agree with you 100%, in which case you should starve him, berate him, refuse to help him and tell him how to live his life."

There's a great weight of hypocrisy on America's shoulders. The Republican primaries are just beginning and already we're inundated with radical right wing candidates pontificating on their own Personal Relationship with God and their definition of Christian values.

All the while they've been breaking Commandments ... and the backs of average Americans whose lives are in their hands.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning their faith. I'm expressing serious doubts about how well they practice what they presume to preach.

If Rick Santorum has a chance to lead, well, actually, I don't know what will happen. But I can guess.

"[The] right to privacy…doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution." Rick Santorum

All quotes are in the public record, and unless identified otherwise, were printed in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News.