Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is
using Dan Savage's comments on 'Bill Maher' to raise much-needed
campaign cash.
On last week's edition of HBO's Real
Time with Bill Maher, Savage, a sex advice columnist and gay
rights activist, took broad swipes at Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann
and Santorum, the two most anti-gay candidates in the GOP 2012
presidential field.
In discussing the recent allegations
that Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus, seeks to “cure” gay
people at his Christian counseling center, Savage said: “You can't
pray away the gay, but you can torture a conflicted closet case to
death.”
And when comic Marc Maron said he hopes
Mr. Bachmann “takes all that rage that comes from repression and
denial into the bedroom with her … and I hope he fucks her angrily,
because that's how I would,” Savage took a swipe at Santorum: “I
sometimes think about fucking the shit out of Rick Santorum … I'm
up for whipping up some santorum in Santorum.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Savage was referring to Santorum's
so-called Google problem: a definition of “santorum” which links
the senator anal sex. Savage helped coin the phrase in 2003, and
nearly eight years later it continues to rank high on Google's search
results.
This week, the former Pennsylvania
senator started using Savage's remarks to raise funds.
During a Monday appearance on WOR
radio's Steve Malzberg show, Santorum called Savage's jokes “filth”
and accused Savage of attempting to “intimidate” him.
“This man has gone out there and
tried to destroy my integrity,” Santorum said. “I mean, you've
heard the whole issue of the Google issue. That's Dan Savage. You
know, it's the lowest debasement of public discourse. It's offensive
beyond, you know, anything that any public figure in America should
tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it. They kid about
it. They write about it. They say, 'Oh, Santorum has a Google
problem.'”
“You stand up against them,”
Santorum added, “they will intimidate you, they will use vile
things, and the media will applaud them, and you will be ostracized
in society. That's their objective.”
Santorum also used similar language
this week in a fundraising letter to supporters.
“Savage and his perverted sense of
humor is the reason why my children cannot Google their father’s
name. I took the high road for nearly a decade by not dignifying
these mindless attacks, then even defending his 1st Amendment right
to spew this filth. And to this day, liberals like Rachel Maddow
serve as Savage’s lackeys on national television, pushing his
smut.”
“That is why I need you support
today, and your contribution of $25, $50, $100 or $250,” the letter
reads.
Maddow, who is openly lesbian, has
discussed Santroum's Google problem on her nightly MSNBC show, but
she isn't his only critic.
Santorum's plea for money also
neglected to mention his role in the feud, which started in 2003
after he likened gay unions to “man on dog.”