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But conservatives back remarks on gays

Friday, April 25, 2003

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The uproar over Sen. Rick Santorum's public remarks about homosexuals has taken on a bipartisan cast, as several Republican senators criticized him yesterday. But various conservative activists were simultaneously leaping to the Pennsylvania Republican's defense.

While Santorum continues to stand by his recent remarks to an Associated Press reporter, several GOP colleagues now are advising him to apologize.

Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island yesterday expressed disappointment with Santorum. Fellow Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon said Santorum's comments were "hurtful to the gay and lesbian community."

Sources said Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins, also of Maine, were privately telling party members that an apology by Santorum would be the best way to defuse the controversy.

In an April 7 interview that The Associated Press published Monday, Santorum was criticizing an effort to have an anti-sodomy law in Texas thrown out on the grounds that it violates a constitutional right to privacy.

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home," the senator said, "then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery, you have the right to anything." He went on to say: "I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts."

The Supreme Court plans to rule on the Texas case this summer.

Gay rights groups and a number of prominent Democrats, including presidential candidate Howard Dean, have called for Santorum to step down from his No. 3 leadership post among Senate Republicans.

Democrats are comparing Santorum's comments to those of Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was forced to resign his post as Republican leader after saluting since-retired Sen. Strom Thurmond at a birthday party by seemingly endorsing the South Carolinian's 1948 segregationist White House bid. Santorum was a key defender of Lott until criticism mounted among Republicans and the White House stopped defending him.

The White House and President Bush have refused so far to comment on Santorum's remarks.

But Democrats were in full cry. Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, who heads the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, said yesterday that Santorum's remarks were so "divisive and unfortunate" that "everybody would be well served if he stepped aside from [his] leadership position." House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the senator's refusal to apologize showed that he didn't understand why his remarks caused offense.

Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, who replaced Lott as the GOP leader, spoke up for his leadership colleague, calling Santorum "a consistent voice for inclusion and compassion in the Republican Party and in the Senate, and to suggest otherwise is just politics."

But Snowe suggested otherwise, noting, "Discrimination and bigotry have no place in our society, and I believe Senator Santorum's unfortunate remarks undermine Republican principles of inclusion and opportunity."

Chafee remarked, "I thought his choice of comparisons was unfortunate, and the premise that the right of privacy does not exist -- just plain wrong. Senator Santorum's views are not held by this Republican and many others in our party."

Still, conservatives rushed yesterday to Santorum's defense. A street theater protest outside Santorum's office yesterday -- organized by Public Advocate of the United States of America, a self-described "pro-family group" in northern Virginia -- contended that he was being made a victim of "thought patrol police."

Brent Bozell, a conservative who heads a group called the Media Research Center, argued that the Santorum flap was fed by "the liberal media," showing "contempt for free speech and open debate on crucial social issues."

Ken Connor, who heads the conservative Family Research Council, berated Republicans for not offering a more "spirited defense" of Santorum, saying they were afraid of being accused of bigotry by Democrats and homosexual activists.

Some conservatives were quick to cite a potential conflict in that Lara Jakes Jordan, the AP reporter who interviewed Santorum, is married to Jim Jordan, campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate.

At a Pennsylvania town meeting Wednesday, Santorum said he would not apologize because he was talking about the legal rationale involved in Lawrence & Garner v. Texas, the case that the Supreme Court is to rule on in June. His aides said they expected that the furor would die down in a few days.

In 1986, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, upheld the legality of anti-sodomy laws, ruling that there is no constitutional privacy right for consenting adults to have homosexual relations. But now the justices have decided to take up the issue again in the Texas case.

In a gesture of support that Santorum may not appreciate, Owen Allred, head of a pro-polygamy group in Utah, told The Salt Lake Tribune that Santorum was correct in pointing out that Americans are downgrading marriage. But Santorum should not have cited polygamy as an evil, Allred argued, because it is "a religious tradition" that goes back to Abraham and Moses.

Ann McFeatters can be reached at amcfeatters@nationalpress .com or 1-202-662-7071.