Santorum's Schtick: Speaking Before Thinking

PITTSBURGH, PA - More than a decade removed from public office and six years years since his surprising second-place finish for the GOP presidential nomination, Rick Santorum remains a darling of cable news shows.

It’s easy to understand why.

Viewers tune in to hear the often-outrageous remarks that spray from Santorum’s mouth like outdoor fountain water on a windy day. They tune in to hear statements that can defy logic, be factually inaccurate, offend people or, on certain occasions, accomplish all of those things simultaneously.

Much to the probable delight of CNN, the former Pennsylvania senator delivered on the outrageous recently while appearing on the network. He suggested that students calling for stricter gun control laws in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school slaughter that left19 people dead would be better off learning CPR.

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that," Santorum said.

Almost instantly, a flood of physicians took to social media to tell Santorum that CPR is a technique to get a stopped heart beating again so it can pump blood. They noted that CPR is not effective on a body riddled with bullet holes as there would be little blood in the body left to pump.

Surrendering to irrefutable medical logic, Santorum acknowledged several days later: “I did misspeak.”
That’s certainly not the first time.

Santorum, who rose to political prominence from the Pittsburgh area, probably is best known for his 2003 remarks likening homosexuality to bestiality. Twelve years later, Santorum admitted (again on CNN), “I wish I had never said that.”

That’s possibly because he knew he would have an extraordinarily difficult time topping that preposterous statement. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying.

Disagreeing with Pope Francis that climate change is real, Santorum advised the pope in 2015 to “leave science to the scientists and focus on...theology or morality.”

The pope was too polite to inform Santorum that although he wasn’t a scientist per se, he studied science in college. He has a chemistry degree.

Nor did Francis note that he has at his disposal in the Vatican the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, whose members have won 48 Nobel Prizes. That’s 48 more than Santorum has in his trophy case, but only because the Nobels haven’t added “outlandish statements” to the prize categories.

Discussing threats to the nation in 2011, Santorum broached the topic of Trojans rather than terrorists, saying, “One of the things I will talk about is...the dangers of contraception in this country.”

That was also the year he offered compelling evidence why he never should work for the U.S. Census Bureau. “A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion,” he told a New Hampshire radio station.

There are a myriad of other examples, but citing them all would make your eyes glaze over and also belabor the point. Santorum shoots from the hip and has demonstrated over the years he doesn’t mind if he shoots himself in the foot in doing so.

Why should he? His continued relevance on the national stage depends on the network news shows continuing to order up heaping helpings of Santorum schtick.

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh field editor. Reach him at 412-334-4033 or Eric.Heyl@Patch.com.

Santorum photo: Getty Images.