Rick Santorum on Saturday told a crowd
of conservative Republicans that he's finished making apologies for
his opposition to gay marriage and blamed former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney for its legalization.
Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa at the
Presidential Preference Convention hosted by the National Federation
of Republican Assemblies, Santorum said he was being targeted in the
media for his socially conservative stances.
“If you look at the debates, every
single moral, cultural question has come to me first. I was in a
conversation with Mike Huckabee the other day. I said, 'Mike,
they're trying to Huckabee me.' They're trying to paint [me] into
that box that you're the social conservative candidate and ask you
all these social conservative questions.”
“Well as far as I'm concerned, bring
it on … I am not ashamed for standing up for life, family and faith
which are the foundation of our society.”
He then added that his GOP rival,
Romney, was responsible for gay marriage being legal in 6 states and
the District of Columbia.
“Guess who didn't rebuff the courts,”
Santorum said, referring to the first state Supreme Court ruling to
legalize gay marriage. “Governor Romney. Governor Romney issued
those marriage licenses – ordered people to issue marriage licenses
in contradiction to the constitution and the statutes of
Massachusetts.”