Santorum Strikes Back at Behar's 'Big Homophobe' Remark

As NewsBusters previously reported, Joy Behar called former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) a "big homophobe" on the HLN program bearing her name Monday.

Santorum struck back Wednesday on WOR radio's "The Steve Malzberg Show" saying, "This is really the problem that we see on the left which is the personalization of politics" (audio follows with transcript and commentary):

STEVE MALZBERG, HOST: I don’t know if you heard. I’m sure you did. Joy Behar talking to Don Lemon, a CNN, a CNN anchor…

RICK SANTORUM: (Laughs)

MALZBERG: …who just came out of the closet…

SANTORUM: Yeah.

MALZBERG: She gratuitously threw this in. Let’s hear cut one, Bobby.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, HLN: Now, I know that you’re an objective newsperson.

DON LEMON, CNN: Yeah.

BEHAR: And so, you’re going to have people sit there with you like Rick Santorum who seems like a big homophobe and others because they’re running for president or whatever and will talk about gay marriage, etc. How do you feel that you’ll be able to handle that easily?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALZBERG: Alright, where does she get that you are a homophobe?

SANTORUM: Yeah, ’cause I, I guess because you stand for traditional marriage and you believe that, you know, that people should, we should have a society that affirms one man and one woman as marriage, that makes you someone who’s a hater, someone that doesn’t, doesn’t like people. I disagree with people, by the way, who are gay and straight who believe in changing the marriage laws. But it’s a public policy discussion, and this is the, this is really the problem that we see on the left which is the personalization of politics. I mean, we have a policy disagreement, and, and which I am very passionate about. I admit that. Because I do believe the family, integrity of the family is important for the future of our country. But that does not mean that, that I don’t like people or I hate people or that there’s something wrong. The only thing that’s wrong is their opinion.

MALZBERG: Yeah, so when you hear some, when you hear somebody like Joy Behar who typifies the Left, what do you think when you’re hearing this?

SANTORUM: It’s, it’s, I think this is exactly the politics they play, which is they don’t want to have the discussion about what the real effects are. For example, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and now we see at least that was attempted for the Navy to make chaplains, you know, marry people in the Navy who are same-sex couples. I mean, they don’t want to talk about the logical consequences of the policy discussions that we’re having. They’d rather just attack people for being haters and not really talk about the substance of the problem. And that’s, that’s not going to further, you know, public discourse in this country, and certainly in my opinion doesn’t further their cause.

Santorum hit the nail right on the head.

Liberal media commentators these days are not only clueless about the issues, they really have no interest in discussing them.

Everything from the Left now is ad hominem attacks - nothing more. Their speech and/or writing patterns have devolved to the way anonymous people of differing views flame each other on message boards.

The difference is, of course, that these folks actually get paid for such assaults and are congratulated by their followers like gladiators hearing thunderous applause at the Coliseum.

Seems like years since they were disingenuously calling for a toning down of the rhetoric after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot.

In case you have forgotten, that was only four months ago.

How time flies when you're heaping scorn.