“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” – Rick Santorum

The GOP has had its moments.  You know, those scary, makes-you-cringe moments.  There was Dan Quayle’s attack on Murphy Brown, Gary Bauer flipping pancakes, and Herman Cain running for President even though he had a closet filled with skeletons.  It makes you shake your head.  What were they thinking?

I yearn for those days.

The GOP now faces a major decision.  To embrace Rick Santorum, or one of the other three candidates.  Santorum continues to surge, quite possibly because he’s deemed by the main stream media (and sometimes even non-main stream sources) as the only viable conservative option in the current field.  He’s currently the anti-Romney.  You know this drill, the media raises a candidate up to challenger status in order to have them compete with Romney.  Bachmann, Gingrich, Perry, Cain, Gingrich (again) all were anointed by the media prior to their ascent to the media’s guillotine.  Santorum is one the same path, except that he’s still being propped up by the media.  The argument has been made that the liberal media is worried about a Romney’s candidacy and Rick looks like a candidate Obama can walk all over in November.  For once, the liberal media is absolutely correct.  Santorum is poison to the GOP, a cancer that will eat away at the current anti-Obama sentiment and redirect that sentiment towards a candidate who is far out of step with the center-right coalition that elects Republican Presidents.

He is the brakes on a surging GOP, which has been fueled by strong anti-Obamacare sentiments, activists upset by the size and scope of this government, and the original Tea Party members who yearn for lower, fairer taxes.  A Santorum candidacy ends all of this and changes the debate from relevant topics to the odd and strange that Santorum has stood for.  These topics include: Satan coming after America, women in the military, gay rights, and contraceptive use to name a few.  Hey, anyone see that unemployment flirts with double digits each month?  Gas prices are through the roof?  In a Santorum-Obama matchup, there will be little discussion of issues that matter in 2012.  Instead the Obama machine will relish in the opportunity to go after Rick’s weak and generally unpopular social stances.  The Chicago machine will paint him as an extremist and we have ourselves a candidate who may be our version of Walter Mondale in 1984.  We lose–badly.

Besides Santorum being a political albatross on the party’s neck, he’s the biggest government candidate left standing in the GOP field.  He’s a big spender (i.e. Congressional pay increases, Bridge to Nowhere), big government advocate (No Child Left Behind), and a tax raiser; his social agenda creates a nanny state that would make Mayor Bloomberg look like Ron Paul.  If you want to see social engineering, Rick’s your guy!

Now is a time for choosing.  Though all are flawed, any of the other three candidates are extremely more acceptable than Rick Santorum.  His nomination destroys any of the current GOP traction, and sets us back light years.  He would created a unfocused party and will splinter the GOP into a number of directions.  We can say goodbye to Reagan Democrats, the middle class, small government conservatives and any serious economic conservatives.  Conservatives need to see this candidate for what he is: an unelectable swelling boil on the GOP.

Per Oprah: The presidency “holds a sense of authority and governance over us all”.  Last time I checked, our elected officials are public servants not kings and queens.

Rep. Lee’s Photo Scandal Might Lead To Changes At NY SenateCBS New York.

I sat watching the Pima County sheriff pontificate on how the actions of Saturday morning were a result of talk radio and vitriol in the county.  It all sounded familiar–echoes of a vast right-wing conspiracy wrung in my ear.  Here we go again.  What made this press conference so strange and inappropriate was how this officer of law and order was speculating on the reasons behind the killings, all the while devoid of facts.  Shouldn’t a figure of law and order be responsible for providing  the actual facts of the case and allowing some time for detectives to uncover the sick motives of the crime?  It seemed easy to blame conservatives, the extreme right and the 2008 vice presidential nominee of the GOP.  As time goes by, we are learning much more about this situation.  

We are learning that this young man (a pathetic boy, really) seems not to be a mouthpiece for any political agenda.  Instead, reports are showing he’s an extremely troubled and dangerous citizen who didn’t vote in 2010 and had a freakish altar in his backyard.  Hardly a political firebrand, he more a reclusive outcast and a loner.  I suspect more will materialize about him which will indicate he is not an anarchist but simply mentally ill. 

The lessons that Sheriff  Dupnik was trying to espouse were irresponsible, unprofessional and inaccurate.  Since his statement on Saturday, his voice has been added to a choir of liberals who have indicated the right has somehow poisoned this country with our beliefs–creating an irrational and dangerous scapegoat for the killings.  Americans need to look past this divisive political attempt to gain popularity in the polls and see this travesty for what it is:  a sick attack on innocent bystanders by a deranged gunman.  Trying to tie this heinous act to a movement or belief system is an insult to the dead and wounded all in the name of a political gain.