UPDATE III:
The same newspaper that was attacked by Senator Santorum — through one of its reporters — says this morning that “taking heed of criticism, Santorum tones down attacks.” Meet a “more subdued Santorum” here.
Will his new-found mellowness be too little, too late?
UPDATE II:
And one more nail in the coffin:
According to the WaPo, “U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), considered by many to be a strong choice for vice president, has announced his endorsement of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination. Rubio declined to endorse before the Florida primary earlier this year, but he said Wednesday during an appearance on Fox News Channel that it’s time to coalesce around Romney.”
“It’s increasingly clear that Mitt Romney’s gonna be the Republican nominee,” Rubio said. “We’ve got to come together behind who I think has earned this nomination and that’s Mitt Romney.”
Read more here
UPDATE I:
One more strike against Santorum — and not from the New York Times:
The Washington Post reports that former President George H. W. Bush plans to endorse Mitt Romney tomorrow in Houston, “another sign that the Republican Party is coalescing around the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential campaign.”
Read more here
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Original Story:
We all lose our temper at times. Some of us even use “expletives” or “no-no words” sometimes. Even the best among us do so.
Remember Vice President Cheney’s use of the F-word on the floor of the Senate? And Vice President Biden’s dropping of a different version of the F-word during the ceremony for the signing of the health care bill?
Yes, “we all do it.” But most of us feel bad about it immediately thereafter and probably most of us — if we were in a public position — would probably apologize for the loss of decorum.
I say most of us, because there are exceptions. One of those is Vice President Dick Cheney who, after telling Sen. Patrick Leahy to go and do something anatomically impossible with or to to himself, said he didn’t regret cursing at Sen. Patrick Leahy and that he felt better after the incident.
We just witnessed another exception to the norm.
On Sunday, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum used an expletive against New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny when Zeleny sought clarification about Santorum’s statement about his rival — and GOP front runner — Mitt Romney: “He is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.”
When asked about his exchange with the reporter, Mr. Santorum said he had no regrets.
“I don’t regret taking on a New York Times reporter who was out of line,” he said. “If you are conservative and you haven’t taken on a New York Times reporter, you aren’t worth your salt.”
Just as Mr. Cheney did at the time — expressing pride at his bravado — Santorum went on “Fox & Friends” on Monday and crowed, “If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not really a real Republican, is the way I look at it …”
And to make sure that his “courage” was well rewarded, Santorum sent an e-mail to his supporters saying that he is “ready to take on the New York Times” (“I didn’t back down and I didn’t let [Zeleni] bully me”) and asking for a $30 contribution.
That amount happens to be roughly the cost of one month’s subscription to the Times.
I know because I just renewed my subscription. (And I know, I know, you just cancelled yours — the one you didn’t have.)
Getting back to Santorum, the sad part about not apologizing for one’s transgression — in fact, using such to aggrandize oneself — is that a person like Santorum then has to spend at least a couple of days debating the expletive, instead of debating the real issues facing our country, such as euthanasia in the Netherlands, the use of Spanish in Puerto Rico and, of course, delaying getting back to the wars on porn, contraception, gay marriage, gays in the military, etc., and explaining how President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the separation of church and states just made him want to throw up.
It is funny, but while expletives can be deleted, the impressions one creates afterwards by attempting to justify them or even boasting about them, just cannot be deleted.
Image shutterstock.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.