Quote of the Day - Andrew Sullivan on an Attempt to Equate Obama with Santorum

In an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal, a commentator - disingenuously in my view - tries to equate Barack Obama's equivocation on gay marriage with the despicable homophobia of Rick Santorum and makes the claim that the "liberal media" cuts Obama slack and applies a double standard. Andrew Sullivan cuts the guy off at the knees:

But there is no equivalence here at all. None.

All Obama has ever said is that he is concerned with the word "marriage" but still favors state and federal civil unions that contain every single right that civil marriage contains, the repeal of DOMA, and has refused to defend DOMA's constitutionality in court. Santorum, in contrast, wants to amend the federal constitution to nullify all civil unions, domestic partnerships, and civil marriages for gays recognized in any state law. He would single out a minority within this country for discrimination in the federal constitution itself! He would tear bi-national couples apart and remove children from their parents. Does McGurn really not see that this is a distinction with a huge difference?

Santorum believes also that all non-procreative marital sex is sinful and certainly has no constitutional protection under some penumbra called "privacy." This means he also in principle believes the government has the right to criminalize masturbation, even if, on prudential grounds, he wouldn't back enforcing it. He opposes all contraception and has compared gay relationships with "man-on-dog" bestiality. He has defined himself, unlike Obama, as a candidate motivated primarily by social issues throughout his career. He is the most radical of the religious fanatics yet to emerge from the Republican base. Quit pretending otherwise.