Following up on my post early this morning regarding Rick Santorum’s comments about Sarah Palin passing up speaking at CPAC. What Politico’s Andy Barr reported doesn’t seem accurate in light of the actual video of the conversation that Senator Santorum had with S.E. Cupp on the first day of her radio show. A recap, this is what Barr wrote:
Rick Santorum knocked Sarah Palin’s decision to skip CPAC, saying on Tuesday that she must have “business opportunities” that are keeping her from the annual conservative conference that is a showcase for potential presidential contenders.
“I have a feeling that she has some demands on her time, and a lot of them have financial benefit attached to them,” Santorum told conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, who hosts an online radio show on Glenn Beck’s website.
Santorum added that Palin has “other business opportunities” — implying her paid speeches were the former Alaska governor’s priority…
….Santorum — the father of seven children — also said that Palin has “other responsibilities,” such as raising her children, that he doesn’t.
“I don’t live in Alaska and I’m not the mother to all these kids and I don’t have other responsibilities that she has,” he said.
Here’s the video of that segment:
Senator Santorum tweeted this morning:
After talking with his office today, and just what I know of him from the time I’ve spent around him, how it was being portrayed did seem out of character, and I said as much.
Now I haven’t listened to the radio show (and I won’t I refuse to pay for internet radio) so it could be that Politico is putting a spin on this, which would like *totally surprise* me, I mean Andy Barr would *never* do such a thing.
Andy Barr responded to Santorum’s criticism:
Rick Santorum is quickly backpedaling from his critical remarks over Sarah Palin’s decision to blow off CPAC, going after POLITICO for spotlighting his attack.
“This article is garbage,” Santorum tweeted this morning, linking to the POLITICO story. “All I said was- she is VERY busy, PERIOD. Reporter trying to create something out of nothing.”
Except, that’s not all he said.
Santorum said in an interview with conservative commentator S.E. Cupp that Palin has “other business opportunities” that are taking up time in her schedule, implying that she’s rebuffing the annual conservative gathering for a paid speech.
“I have a feeling that she has some demands on her time, and a lot of them have financial benefit attached to them,” Santorum said.
Santorum also said Palin has “responsibilities” as a mother that he doesn’t as the father of seven, which some interpreted as sexist.
Pondering this further, I don’t believe Senator Santorum had any nefarious intent, so I’m giving him a pass (he’s relieved I’m sure). He should have ended his comments at “I don’t know” and “she’s got demands on her time.” Sometimes the best answers are shorter ones.
Governor Palin for her part is giving him a pass as well… sort of…
Money quote transcribed by Right Scoop:
I think the reports were much worse than what he really said. I think some things were really taken out of context. So I will not call him the knuckle dragging neanderthal that perhaps others would want to call him. I’ll let his wife call him that instead.
I’m going to assume that was said in jest, but ouch. Senator Santorum was on Greta Van Susteren the next hour responded and made it clear again that it wasn’t his intent to “knock her” (video at the bottom of the page I linked to).
In all of this I think the true winner is S.E. Cupp who received a lot of publicity for her first radio show.
