Former Pennsvylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who gave presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney a run for his mega-money during the primary season, is urging Romney to use President Barack Obama’s stand approving of same sex marriage as a campaign issue. But its clear some in the GOP think it’d be off message.
Santorum, one of the most polarizing politicians in a polarizing Republican field, thinks this is just too good an issue for Romney to pass up:
Rick Santorum is urging Mitt Romney to “step up” and weaponize the issue of same-sex marriage.
“This is a very potent weapon, if you will, for Governor Romney if he’s willing to step up and take advantage of a president who is very much out of touch with the values of America,” Santorum said in an eye-opening live interview with Arkansas TV station KARK, a CNN affiliate.
The former presidential candidate made the remarks before appearing at the Benton County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in the northwest corner of the state Friday night. Santorum’s comments also came the night before Romney’s speech before the Christian conservative Liberty University in Virginia on Saturday.
Romney’s one time rival noted the recent results of a ballot issue in North Carolina where voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
“Hopefully Governor Romney will continue to stand tall for his position on this issue and understand how detrimental it would be for society for it to have this changed,” Santorum also told the Arkansas station.
“Governor Romney has to talk about his values,” he added. “That’s the most important thing.”
But it’s clear that Romney doesn’t want to get bogged down in the same sex marriage controversy. He has even said he’s OK with gay couples adopting children. (UPDATE: The Etch a Sketch has been used: he has backed away from that position.) He reportedly wants to focus like a laser on the economy. Even House Republicans are trying to put the focus back on jobs.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.