Sympathy for the devil

I challenge anyone to provide a reputable source for this supposed quote attributed to GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum:

Abortion in any form is wrong, except for my wife. If your wife’s life was at stake and the only thing that could save her was an abortion, well, too bad. Your wife will have to die. It was different with my wife. You see, I love her. I don’t even know your wife’s name.

I call bullshit on this whole story. It’s spreading through the Internet like wildfire, no doubt because Rick Santorum is widely hated by social progessives. A story like this reinforces the narrative in the minds of those predisposed to dislike the former senator. It takes the bad guy and shows him to be even worse. And people repost it without thinking or checking its validity.

Reposting something like this is seductive. The post you’re reading right now started as a condemnation of Santorum based on the allegations in that article. Fortunately, we here at Monochromatic Outlook believe that when wasting time reading political blogs on the Internet one should waste more time confirming the facts before wasting time writing a political blog post.

Kudos to Dan Savage (it’s safe to say he’s not a fan of Rick Santorum) for retracting his post on thestranger.com, citing lack of any credible source. Dan, you’re a professional and you should have checked before you posted, but everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone corrects theirs. Good on ya.

I’d very much like to keep Rick Santorum away from public office, but spreading lies—especially one so vicious about a family tragedy—is not to be tolerated.