Former Pennsylvania Senator Rich Santorum suggests when the Iowa Caucuses are held next year, Iowa Republicans may be swayed by the fact that he personally joined the effort to toss three Iowa Supreme Court Justices off the court in 2010.
“Of the potential Republican candidates, I was the only one who came into the state, jumped on the ‘Judge Bus’, talked about the issue of having people decide what marriage laws should be — not courts, and no other Republican potential nominee or candidate came to do the same,” Santorum says.
Another potential presidential candidate — Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels — has suggested it’s time for the G.O.P. to “call a truce” on social issues. Santorum says that’s not possible when it comes to gay marriage. “Well, a truce in this case means ceding ground to the other side,” Santorum says.
President Obama this week told Justice Department lawyers to quit defending the federal “Defense of Marriage Act” against court challenges and Santorum accuses Obama of trying to “erode” the tradition of marriage. “In a two year period of time, he went from finding this law to be perfectly fine and constitutional to finding it to be somehow unconstitutional even though to my knowledge the language of the Constitution hasn’t changed any in the last two years, yet his interpretation of it has,” Santorum says. “And I think it’s driven by politics.”
According to Santorum, Obama’s on the losing side of the gay rights issue, as voters in 31 out of 31 states have passed measures that ban gay marriage. “I certainly want to be kind, and if people want to love somebody else, they’re perfectly free to love whoever they want to love,” Santorum says. “It’s different, though, if you’re asking us to change the law about marriage and the impact of changing that law is on our schools, on our childrens’ education, and on our religious institutions.”
Santorum made his comments during taping of this weekend’s edition of the “Iowa Press” program which airs Friday at 7:30 p.m. on Iowa Public Television. Read a transcript of Santorum’s remarks about gay marriage here. Read about and listen to what Santorum said after the show’s taping here.