The roll call of Republican congressmen standing behind Rick Santorum as a model of "inclusiveness" grew today with the addition of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (who didn't actually use the i-word, but who rather was "very proud of Rick Santorum standing on principle") and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who said "[Santorum] is our greatest champion [emphasis mine] for inclusiveness and fairness."
Sadly, this latter statement is starting to have a ring of truth.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist reiterated his support today for Mr. Santorum by noting that the "man of caring, compassion and tolerance" has "100 percent confidence" of Senate Republicans.
"Tolerance": now those Republicans have gone and ruined another perfectly good word.
[update 2003-04-30 18:25: I missed the fact that Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Whip, also praised Santorum's inclusiveness yesterday: "A variety of us have said in one way or another we know Rick Santorum, we know he's not a bigot. He's an inclusive senator."
Meanwhile, a Baptist Church in North Carolina was expelled from a local Baptist association last night for baptizing two gay men. We keep being told vis a vis the Santorum incident that many who are religious subscribe to a "hate the sin, love the sinner" philosophy. Would someone explain to me how withholding baptism (not that it really matters to me, since 1) I don't believe in heaven or hell or an angry white man up in the fluffy clouds; and 2) any jealous, snippy god that might condemn any of its creations, which it's supposed to love, to eternal damnation, really isn't worth loving or worshiping anyway) is the sign of a loving Christian orientation?
