The Santorum story from the WP 2005. Time to remember.

[madfloridian]

Our country must be in dire straits right about now if this is not considered shocking. I can not imagine this man in the White House.

Father First, Senator Second

In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.

Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.

"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.

He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described -- "a 20-week-old fetus" -- on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."

On edit because I am being accused of being judgemental.

He is on the front lines of the battle to keep a woman from getting a possibly life-saving late-term abortion.

From the article:

He is ensconced in the most divisive issues in America's culture wars: homosexuality, abortion, the role of religion in public life, and most recently, the Terri Schiavo controversy. He has compared homosexuality to incest and called the preservation of traditional marriage "the ultimate homeland security issue." He is a proponent of applying religious values to political institutions, and hosts a course on Catholic doctrine for members of Congress (open to Republicans only) in his hideaway office.

He is a proponent of applying religious values to political institutions.

That makes it my business.

I care what he did because of what he does in office.

[phantom power]

1. recommend

that is creepy

[Le Taz Hot]

7. I'm with you.

It offers some insight into a twisted mind. Sorry, BRINGING HOME your dead baby so you AND YOUR CHILDREN can cuddle and sing lullabies?

[madfloridian]

23. Well, I agree with you.

It would be his own business if he were not planning to impose his religious views on the country. The whole thing is very weird.

[gratuitous]

2. What Santorum does in his own family life interests me little

It's when he decides that the law should be changed so that everyone worships fetuses--sorry, babies like he does that I have a major problem. So, with this in mind, when do you suppose the popular media are going to get around to asking Mr. Santorum about his peculiar fetish? Is never a good time? How does never work for everyone? I guess it's far more important to ask Democratic candidates about their college days, instead of what an allegedly grown man did.

[wtmusic]

3. I can't imagine Santorum in the WH, but this doesn't have anything to do with it.

A personal tragedy, and his way of dealing with it. I'll pass judgement when I've been through it too.

[blm]

4. Mr. 'limit damage awards' Santorum's wife also sued and was awarded over 400k for minor back injury

They are a family of grifters who put this macabre story out to further ingratiate themselves with the pro-life voters.

[Scuba]

5. Cuddling a dead baby? With your children? Wow!

[dkf]

6. Reading that makes me cry.

How sad. I think it is ok to grieve over a miscarriage or a still born baby. I won't get on his case for this.

[Brickbat]

8. I have to say that this is something I can't necessarily fault. I'm a firm believer in not being

afraid of death, and I can see myself doing something *like* this if I had an early delivery and the baby died. Many parents find a great deal of comfort in having pictures taken of their dead children, and dead-baby photography is quite a rising industry. I would want my other children to see what had happened, and I would not hush it up or have the dead child hustled out of the room as soon as possible.

Grief makes people do a lot of things. I can't imagine losing a child. I think it's a mistake to judge what other people do in grief.

ETA: There are many more important things that affect many more people that we can judge Santorum on. I'm happy to let this one fade.

[mopinko]

9. dead baby photography is actually an old thing.

very common in the early days of photography for families to take the only chance they would have to get a photograph of the baby. not quite the situation now, but still.

[Brickbat]

10. Very true.

Some of the websites look like wedding photography. I think it's a nice idea.

[SoCalDem]

20. When I was about 14, I found 6 framed pictures of babies in ornate old frames

They were professionally done pictures . On the backs of them were dates written....from 1906 to 1913.. They were the 6 children that my grandmother gave birth to before the first one (my late Aunt) lived.. They had all died in childbirth:(..One was a set of twins and there were two that were born the same calendar year. They were all dressed in ornate baby gowns & photographed. then the pictures were boxed & put away .. we found then after my grandparents had both died..

[madfloridian]

21. Actually photography was only a small part of my post.

It was more about the rest of it.

[madfloridian]

11. Read my edited post. He wants to apply religious values to government.

That makes it necessary for me to question. I think you should as well.

[Brickbat]

14. As I said, there is a lot we can go after him for without dragging the dead baby into it.

I despise him for many things, but his actions in grief are not an issue to me.

[madfloridian]

15. Those are his religious views. He wants to impose them on us.

And I will speak out about it.

[Brickbat]

16. Are you saying mourning a wanted pregnancy, whether you believe it's a fetus or a baby or something

else entirely, is a religious issue? If so, I disagree.

[madfloridian]

17. No, I did not say that. I am backing off.

If you don't understand what I meant then explaining it further would not matter. Bye for now.

[Metta]

12. In addition, he lived outside of his district for years.

Had an empty house in his district while he lived high in VA.

[struggle4progress]

13. It's a weird story, but death and grief are terrible experiences, and people react differently

"They reacted to the death of their child in a creepy way" is a lousy narrative: Santorum's school district shenanigans are much more fruitful avenue

Frankly, I think he's too loony-tunes to go much of anywhere. The mid-May Gallup had him as the 8th choice for Republicans -- with 2% wanting him

[sunnystarr]

18. It was the 2004 Scandal that I remember

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x988142#988240

Such a hypocrite!

[madfloridian]

19. Good reminder. I remember working with DFA on that.

[madfloridian]

22. The Santorum 2003 anti-abortion bill and the Dems who voted with him.

Here's the danger. A man who wants religion to control political views doesn't believe a woman should get a late-term abortion at all. Under no circumstances except her possible death, not even if it damages her health. The harm to women is magnified when the other party goes along to get the votes of the religious right.

How it was easy to get the ban on late term abortions...our party went along.

Harold Ford
Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life.
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003: Vote to pass a bill banning a medical procedure, which is commonly known as "partial-birth" abortion. The procedure would be allowed only in cases in which a women's life is in danger, not for cases where a women's health is in danger. Those who performed this procedure, would face fines and up to two years in prison, the women to whom this procedure is performed on are not held criminally liable.
Reference: Bill sponsored by Santorum, R-PA; Bill S.3 ; vote number 2003-530 on Oct 2, 2003
http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Harold_Ford_Abortion.htm

Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life.
S. 3 As Amended; Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Vote to pass a bill banning a medical procedure, which is commonly known as "partial-birth" abortion. Those who performed this procedure would then face fines and up to two years in prison, the women to whom this procedure is performed on are not held criminally liable. This bill would make the exception for cases in which a women's life is in danger, not for cases where a women's health is in danger.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Tom_Carper_Abortion.htm

Also voting for the so-called "partial birth abortion" ban were other Democrats. The bill did not allow for a woman's health to be considered. Just a life or death situation.

In the Senate:

John Breaux, Harry Byrd, Kent Conrad, Tom Daschle, Byron Dorgan, Fritz Hollings, Tim Johnson, Mary Landrieu, Patrick Leahy, Blanche Lincoln, Miller (GA), Ben Nelson, Pryor AK, Harry Reid.

Not voting.
John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=1&vote=00051#position

There were 63 Democrats in the House who voted for it. Ford is listed above. I have not looked the others up yet.

There's a danger in electing a president who is willing to pass laws like this because he wants politics to reflect his religious views.