Santorum in '08: "Satan is attacking" America
Controversial comments made four years ago by Rick Santorum are making waves ahead of a key election next Tuesday in Michigan, where the conservative former senator from Pennsylvania is in the midst of tight race against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president.
Santorum said in August 2008 that "Satan has his sights set" on the United States of America, adding that "the Father of Lies" is using vice to go after the nation's great institutions.
"Satan [has been] attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition," Santorum said at Ave Maria University in Florida in 2008.
The remarks appear to have first resurfaced last Thursday on rightwingwatch.org, and are now being highlighted by powerful conservative aggregator Matt Drudge, who is widely seen by GOP insiders as an ally of Mitt Romney.
"This is a spiritual war," Santorum said in 2008. "And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies, Satan, would have his sights on: A good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age. There is no one else to go after other than the United States."
Santorum goes on to say that Satan has been "most successful and first successful" in attacking academia, saying Satan exploited the "pride of smart people." Then, he said, Satan went after the church, and now "we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."
He then said Satan has also gone after popular culture - which he discusses below - before saying politics "is falling too."
"Whether its sensuality of vanity of the famous in America, they are peacocks on display and they have taken their poor behavior and made it fashionable," he said. "The corruption of culture, the corruption of manners, the corruption of decency is now on display whether it's the NBA or whether it's a rock concert or whether it's on a movie set."
Santorum, who has risen to the top of national polls of Republican presidential candidates, has faced increased scrutiny in recent days for his suggestion that President Obama's policies are grounded in a "phony theology... not found in the Bible," his suggestion that Mr. Obama's health care plan amounted to a program to abort disabled children, and his questioning of the value of public education.
The Santorum campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment on his claims that Satan is targeting the United States.
Attention to the audio falls on the same day that the university where Santorum made the remarks - Ave Maria University - announced it is suing the Obama administration over its policy mandating that employees at religiously-affiliated universities have access to free contraceptive health care coverage.
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Sadly, your observation is too true, slow...
ALLEGED thoroughly pissed me off with his diatribes against a woman, a mother, who when faced with intense international media attention and an impossible personal situation stood by her husband, regardless of her personal feelings of betrayal and humiliation.
As she was dying, ALLEGED was complaining bitterly about expressions of sympathy directed at her in her final hours. As a "patriot" he deplored any kind words for this woman who displayed more dignity and grace under unimaginable pressure than most of us would be capable of in such a trying situation, saying, "Sure...just get an incurable disease and all is forgiven, but not by a patriot"
What a puke!
You're damn right my post was mean-spirited, deliberately crafted to inflict a wound, if possible (although that's pretty doubtful considering ALLEGED surely doesn't give a damn what I think any more than I am concerned with his mildly irritating existence)
I caught him in an apparently stupid lie about missing Baghdad...
---
First of little man, you caught no one in anything.
Missing "baghdad" was in reference to "baghdad's here" another moron who shoots off his yap when he has no clue.
And your agrandizing of of a woman who conspired to fool the American electorate just because she died makes me want to puke. Elizabeth Edwards was no better than John.
She knew damn well he was another Gingrich but peddled him as a dedicated family man because she wanted to be first lady. Like I said -as bad as he.
for a simple mind.
Likewise, slow.
I had a round with this guy a few nights back....almost makes me miss baghdad......
***********************************
BAGHDAD...???
But ALLEGED FormerUSMCSergeant...
Didn't you once boast to me about having done two tours during the Vietnam unpleasantness way back in the day...?
Did you re-up after all those decades just to grab some trigger time in Iraq and be a "patriot" again?
WOTTAGUY!!!
I had you pegged all along...just another sanctimonious phony with a big mouth and a BS war story to tell...as If that would give you leave to judge and condemn others in your incredibly mean-spirited way (the late Mrs. Edwards comes to mind) based on your self-professed "superior moral upbringing" nonsense, and your self-anointed status as a "patriot"...even if any of that were true.
You're either lying about Vietnam...or about "missing Baghdad" there snuffy...
Which is it, you REM pouge MF? (and even calling you an REM is giving you the benefit of the doubt...although the rest remains true under any and all circumstances)
I choose to believe that you were never actually in the Corps at all...or even if you were, I propose to feel much better by electing to believe that one such as you was not...could not...have been one of us. Some of your more self-righteous, self-congratulatory posts profane that which I hold most precious and dear, mainly because your rather pretentious handle, coupled with your presumptous posts from on high reflects badly on the USMC. People might begin to think we were all creeps like you...and that is most unacceptable
I probably agree with what you say more often than not, but what a crock you are sometimes...
ALLEGED thoroughly pissed me off with his diatribes against a woman, a mother, who when faced with intense international media attention and an impossible personal situation stood by her husband, regardless of her personal feelings of betrayal and humiliation.
As she was dying, ALLEGED was complaining bitterly about expressions of sympathy directed at her in her final hours. As a "patriot" he deplored any kind words for this woman who displayed more dignity and grace under unimaginable pressure than most of us would be capable of in such a trying situation, saying, "Sure...just get an incurable disease and all is forgiven, but not by a patriot"
What a puke!
You're damn right my post was mean-spirited, deliberately crafted to inflict a wound, if possible (although that's pretty doubtful considering ALLEGED surely doesn't give a damn what I think any more than I am concerned with his mildly irritating existence)
I caught him in an apparently stupid lie about missing Baghdad...probably caused by too much of something or other...and due to the resentment I harbored...jumped a bit more vigorously than was seemly.
If he actually ever served in Vietnam, I'm sure ALLEGED will know precisely what I mean when I say "Sorry about that"