Santorum surges to the front. For many, I’m sure, that is proof positive of the existence of God. For others, it is worrying evidence of the other dude. Astounding, though, how culture war issues have come to the fore so abruptly. Elections are never about what you think they’re going to be about, are they? 2008 was supposed to be about Iraq, but it ended up being the financial crisis and the economic meltdown. This one is supposed to be about the economy, but for chrissake… the GOP guy who’s been talking incessantly about the economy for the past four years just can’t get past first base. Now it’s looking more and more like the election will be fought over, well… birth control.

Then there’s the billionaire problem. It seems that every major candidate has his sugar daddy. For Gingrich it was Adelson, the reactionary casino magnate. For Romney, it’s himself (of course). And for Santorum, it’s Foster Friess, last name pronounced “freeze”. That’s right: the person behind Rick Santorum, presidential candidate, is Mr. “Freeze”. Time to pick up the bat phone, commissioner. This time, Mr. “Freeze” has a plan that just might work. After all, Santorum was nobody, absolutely nobody before the right-wing, hyper Christian billionaire started sluicing money in Super-PAC support of his flagging campaign. Then, hey-presto! Front runner status, with no campaign headquarters, bare-bones staff, and little organization. Just like many of the previous front-runners. Sense a pattern?

Funny thing about Mr. Friess. He appears to share his candidate’s aversion to birth control. He quipped this past week that back in the day, birth control for women amounted to an aspirin – holding the aspirin between their knees. What day was that? The fifteenth century? (No, wait… they didn’t have aspirin then. Perhaps it was a sheep’s bladder.) I’ve heard of reactionary, but this is ridiculous. The fact that the guy would consider this “joke” amusing in the context of what has been an open assault by conservatives on the very notion of contraception speaks to the level of retrograde fanaticism we are witnessing. Who better to carry the standard for this than Rick Santorum, Mr. Man-On-Dog himself … the guy who equates gay marriage with polygamy, bestiality, etc. Contraception is “not okay” in his book, so it shouldn’t be in ours, right? Ask Mr. Freeze.

What’s sadder: That the GOP pack is being led, perhaps temporarily, by a bigot funded by a cartoon villain/billionaire? Or that there are still those who see Mitt Romney as the Bruce Wayne/Batman who will save us?

luv u,

jp