I’ll probably have a few more posts on the Rick Santorum controversy; I don’t relish the topic, but as with my coverage of the Trent Lott imbroglio in December, we conservative webloggers have an obligation to wrestle with the tough questions of what is, and isn’t, a reasonable application of conservative principles.
This is not the debate Bush wants to have right now, as we try to segue into domestic policy and ramp up the fight on judicial nominees. But it’s his own damn fault; he could’ve pardoned those guys in Texas either as Governor or President, on a “the government has more important things to do” platform, which would effectively have struck a death blow to sodomy laws without the need to offend religious conservatives by making a statement that would be read as saying “this is OK.”
Then again, the key primary for the Dems in 2004 is South Carolina, so other than Howard Dean, none of their presidential candidates is likely to relish a fight about sodomy just right now (especially since unlike Trent Lott, Santorum’s not going anywhere and may yet be Senate Majority Leader when Frist retires in 2006).