Rick Santorum: Mitt Romney Is 'To The Left' Of President Obama On Gay Rights

WASHINGTON -- Former senator Rick Santorum accused fellow presidential hopeful Mitt Romney of being more liberal than President Obama when it comes to same-sex marriage on Tuesday, during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show.

"I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on gay marriage," Santorum told Ingraham when asked about how Romney might react to a proposed repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law defining federal marriage as being between one man and one woman.

"If you want to see the contrast, the contrast is there. [I'm a] solid conservative who stood and fought for [DOMA], opposed to Mitt Romney, who issued gay marriage licenses and actually violated the constitution of Massachusetts to institute gay marriage in the state," he added.

In February, the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the constitutionality of DOMA, saying the law "contains numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate and family relationships -- precisely the kind of stereotype-based thinking and animus the (Constitution's) Equal Protection Clause is designed to guard against."

Romney was governor of Massachusetts when legislation legalizing gay marriage in the state passed in 2004. Soon after, Romney urged local clerks to bar same-sex couples from out of state from obtaining a marriage license, in order to prevent Massachusetts from becoming what he coined "the Las Vegas of same-sex marriages."

Meanwhile, Santorum has been a strong opponent of gay rights, calling Obama's decision to not support the act an "abomination."

 

 

Comments

[relentless63]

02:22 PM on 11/18/2011

Hey Ricky, what you or Romney or Obama think about Gay Rights doesn’t help pay their rent or amount to a hill of beans. Gay Rights are a big boulder, finally and thankfully rolling down that hill. Get out of the way or it’ll run right over you. In the meantime, do your job. Get them jobs, all of them: gay and straight, black, white and other, men and women all need jobs. There are hungry children in America!

[l78lancer]

07:31 PM on 11/17/2011

So Rick, how would you handle the trade imbalance with China?

[relentless63]

02:24 PM on 11/18/2011

F/F
No fair, lancer. Hard question.

[l78lancer]

07:30 PM on 11/17/2011

Santorum doesn't even get so much as a mention on any subject unless it has something to do with sex.

He probably has his parents' nudie mags up in his attic.

[l78lancer]

07:22 PM on 11/17/2011

Jobs Rick, jobs.
--------------------------------------------------->

Apparently you only think about that word when it has an adverb attached, like foot, blow, hand...

[PHX Dem]

09:24 AM on 02/10/2012

or wack.

[l78lancer]

02:17 PM on 02/10/2012

LOLOL!....heeheehee.

[l78lancer]

02:26 PM on 02/10/2012

I would fan you, but HP is still having "technical issues." smh... ;-\

[TUNCH]

08:29 AM on 11/16/2011

Rick...it's time to move part your obsession with same sex marriage. That is the least of the country's issues at the moment. And, by the way, reducing the corporate tax rate to zero will not create jobs. Maybe you know this and have to throw up the same sex marriage smokescreen to hide your ignorance of economics. I know you have to keep saying what the Christian Conservatives want to hear to stay the tiniest bit relevant...but it's time to wake up from your wet dream of being President.

[IndependentAndProud]

09:35 PM on 11/15/2011

A year from now, Rick Santorum will be trying and failing to get on Dancing With The Stars.

[rss0246]

03:18 PM on 11/15/2011

Remember... This is the same knuckle-dragging Luddite who as a Senator took time out from his radical endless and dreary fetus-hugging agenda to introduce legislation privatizing the National Weather Service and making the American public buy weather forecasts from private companies like Pennsylvania-based Accuweather -- which forecasts are of course prepared using satellite, balloon and ground data collected by the federal government on behalf of U.S taxpayers. His ilk is truly a cancer on any mass, modern, enlightened, industrialized society...

[BeBop33]

11:00 AM on 11/15/2011

minga, this guy's got a walk in closet big enough to park a semi...

ollie ollie oxen free, Ricky....

[DevRock]

10:43 AM on 11/15/2011

Can the media PLEASE collectively ignore this bigoted radical? He's not, and will never be, a legitimate candidate for the White House, so let's please ignore his stupid philosophies and propoganda.

[rbenjamin]

10:14 AM on 11/15/2011

Ugghhhhh - getting hit Santorum!!! Oh HuffPo headlines, must you be so graphic (and funny).

[Michael Charles]

10:13 AM on 11/15/2011

Poor Rick needs to come out of the closet. I've never seen anyone so obsessed with homosexuality who claims to be against it. How long will it be before we find out he's been on the down low for years?

[Sam Hightower]

10:46 AM on 11/15/2011

You've been reading " bigots are buggers " (Google that!)

[Jake Dogg]

10:11 AM on 11/15/2011

OMG I just realized he looks like Butthead.

[Pinkensteve]

10:07 AM on 11/15/2011

Is it me or does Santorum come across as a bit anti gay? (Sarcasm)

[l78lancer]

07:27 PM on 11/17/2011

-anti-

Then you would be correct.

[jwemrw]

09:59 AM on 11/15/2011

Santorum does not register so much as a blip on the political radar screen. When one polls below Michele Barfmann, which is almost impossible to do, it is time to find a new vocation.

[x1cness]

09:29 AM on 11/15/2011

I am beginning to think that this is Rick Santorum's way of coming out. He's past giving subtle hints and into a cry for help. Can someone please sit down with Rick and tell him that it is okay for him to be into men? Maybe they can take Rick to a club and meet a fellow.