Rick Santorum Does About-Face on Gay Issues, while mulling 2012

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Rick Santorum Speaks At Southern Republican Leaders Conference

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sourced by Susan Marie Kovalinsky

Conservatism and anti-gay sentiment has often, although not always , gone together: 

• Huckabee says gay marriage "outside the ideal"
• Some conservatives want AIDS patients isolated 
• Tea Party and anti-gay slogan Tees

David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement  ponders Rick Santorum's about face:  Rick Santorum, Mulling 2012, Warms To Gay Marriage?

In the past,  former Senator Rick Santorum held very strongly oppositional views to gay marriage and to gay issues in general.  He boldly stated that the bond between one man and woman was the building block of every social institution,  and that gay marriage would mean society's rapid decline. 

He became infamous for stating that it was "one man, one woman" and not "one man, one child or one dog".  

Badash is now a bit taken aback, and with good reason,  by the "new"  Santorum:  

Santorum suffered massive defeat in Senate bid 

Santorum  lost his 2006 U.S. Senate election by 59% to 41%,  which according to Badash,  was the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent senator since 1980.    Has he been "scared gay"?  

He  had always modeled himself as an extremely right-wing politician.   Heavy praise and heavy criticism rained down on him due to his public statements and voting record on gays, gay marriage, and gay rights,   intelligent design,   Hurricane Katrina, the Catholic Church’s pedophile priest problem,  among other of his various and sundry cultural and social platforms.    The author of “It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good,” Santorum was deliberately chiding Hilary Clinton's "It takes a village".  

So why is he now changing?  Could it be an attempt to strengthen himself politically, by jumping on Tea Party government and fiscal platforms?  

He now “sees an opening for someone who can unite the various primary factions — economic libertarians, party establishment types and cultural conservatives,” according to CBS News Chief Political Consultant Marc Ambinder.

Source: thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

An issue of national security

In the US Senate,   Santorum called the  banning of gay marriage ‘the ultimate homeland security issue,’  believing  that the existence of gay couples / families represented a threat to national security,  as CBS once said.  

Badash wonders if  has  Santorum warmed to gay marriage and  the LGBTQ community, or is this just a sharp political move.  He concludes it must be either :  a.  Santorum's former anti-gay stance was a lie,  for political expediency or that b.  His new friendliness toward gays is a lie, for political expediency.  Either way, Badash says,  it is not a pretty picture.

Just last year,  in his defense of DOMA,  Santorum had contacted the National Organization for Marriage (NOM)  in Washington, DC,  ranting about the out of control Supreme Court which pushed gay marriage on the state of  Iowa, and said it was a life or death struggle to keep the sacred union of "one man, one woman".