July 30, 2011 09:33 PM UTC

DO NOT Ask Rick Santorum About Tim Gill

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• by: Colorado Pols

From the livestream last night of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum at the Western Conservative Summit–it should come as no surprise that Santorum, when talk turns to wealthy Democrat Tim Gill’s zeal for bringing down the former Pennsylvania Senator back in 2006…well, yeah. As can probably be expected, Santorum goes off a little.

Wow! We thought that Santorum was past defending the whole associating gay marriage with incest and polygamy thing, or had at least discovered a more politic way of doing so. But “Katy bar the door,” you should not have a constitutional right to consensual sexual activity, because it’s an unstoppable slippery slope to eyeing your sister(s). Rick Santorum, everybody!

Shock value aside, there is a relevant (unlike Santorum) political subtext here that’s worth noting. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also spoke at the conference last night, had a little trouble this week after a 2010 interview of Perry surfaced pretty explicitly stating he would leave the matter of gay marriage up to the states; like a good “Tenther.” This week, Perry was forced to change his tune in an interview with the Family Research Council, where he said he does in fact support a federal marriage amendment. That makes Perry a bad “Tenther,” but the FRC is much relieved.

As Santorum makes clear above, obviously as a shot against the flip-flopping Perry, using federal authority to police American bedrooms…has never been a problem for him.