http://tinyurl.com/85fwg

He'd find academic institutions that are the intellectual engine of the
nation, schools, by the way, that have churned out plenty of Republican
leaders, George W. Bush among them.
---------

In sanctum Santorum

By Brian McGrory

http://tinyurl.com/85fwg

Today, I'd like to take a few moments to express profound thanks to
Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the US
Senate. In fact, all Bostonians should thank him for sharing his
incredible wisdom and insight about this city and its depraved ways.

Specifically, here's what Santorum wrote about the church pedophile
scandal on a religious website called Catholic Online. ''When the
culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no
excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of
academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the
center of the storm."

So thank you, senator, for setting us straight about the problems with
the clergy. Thank you for letting us know that all those pedophilic
priests and the church leaders who covered up their crimes are the
fault of every Bostonian.

Who knew that the president of Harvard, the people at the Museum of
Science, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino were to blame for Cardinal Bernard
F. Law's decision to move predatory priests from one parish to another?
Here's who knew: Senator Rick Santorum.

Santorum's words about Boston, though written in 2002, weren't
highlighted until the last couple of weeks, when a Philadelphia Daily
News columnist, John Baer, raised them in print and prompted a running
political discourse in the blogosphere. Perhaps so many imbecilic
statements flow from Santorum's mouth and pen that this one was
initially overlooked.

So I asked a Santorum spokesman whether the senator still believed what
he said about Boston. I mean, guilt might be our greatest natural
resource, but do we really have to fall on our collective sword over
wayward priests?

''It's an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that
tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases," said Robert
Traynham, the Santorum aide. ''I think that's what the senator was
speaking to."

Of course. The whole thing is MIT's fault. Why didn't we realize this
sooner? Maybe the Globe should give its Pulitzer Prize back because it
failed to get to the root cause of the scandal: Cambridge-based rocket
science professors.

I asked Mitt Romney about this. He's starting to hang out in this
crowd, raising money for a conservative political action committee in
Washington just last night.

His spokeswoman, Julie Teer, called back and said: ''What happened with
the church sex abuse scandal was a tragedy, but it had nothing to do
with geography or the culture of Boston. What we know now is that the
sex abuse was occurring around the country and around the world. Boston
was just the first to find out about it."

Good answer. Then I called Menino, who groaned. ''Typical of the guy
who doesn't understand the issue, doesn't understand the Catholicism.
He should come up to Boston and see what it's all about. Maybe we'll
send a welcome wagon to get him."

Please don't, mayor. Please don't. You're talking about a senator who
intruded on Terri Schiavo's deathbed, and, after she died of what an
autopsy determined was an atrophied brain that sent her into a
permanent vegetative state, said she had been ''executed."

He talked about ''man on dog" sex in once explaining to a reporter his
opposition to homosexuality. He told The New York Times that gay
marriage ''absolutely" threatens his own marriage.

Poor Orrin Hatch, John McCain, and Chuck Hagel, all thoughtful
Republican senators who are tainted by Santorum's mere presence.

What would he find up here, anyway? He'd find one of the most Catholic
cities in the country.

He'd find academic institutions that are the intellectual engine of the
nation, schools, by the way, that have churned out plenty of Republican
leaders, George W. Bush among them.

And he'd find a city that is pretty much the birthplace of civil
political discourse, a concept that Santorum essentially violates every
time he opens his mouth.

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