Rick Santorum: The gift that keeps on giving

Rick Santorum is on a roll these days. And from my perspective, it seems that he can't keep his big mouth shut on issues that are both politically senstive and politically damaging these days.

But--as we've seen these past few weeks--Rick Santorum is the kind of man that doesn't believe in personal restraint.

So when he says something both damning and inflammatory, Saint Rick doesn't do things small-time. He goes big.

Forget for the moment that we are facing high gas prices, stagnant job growth, high unemployment, and everything that concerns Americans now--let's focus on religious beliefs and silly notions that go along with them: Abortion, birth control, women's rights...divisive issues that the Republicans play upon these days because they can't win on anything else.

Rick Santorum is no exception. The man is a religious windbag who touts his conservative Catholic beliefs and thinks that--in his mind--it's okay for the President of the United States to push his belief system onto the whole nation.

That everyone has to be Catholic because Ricky happens to be Catholic.

In fact, he's gone so far as to say he doesn't believe in the seperation of church and state--that is the distanced relationship between religion and the nation state--instead saying: "The First Amendment means the free exercise of religion and that means bringing people and their faith into the public square."

Fortunately, Thomas Jefferson would disagree with him on this; citing: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof', thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

The Supreme Court has ruled on this view for well over 100 years--contracting what Rick Santorum staunchly believes should be allowed to happen--regardless of what he desires and wishes of the people.

For one thing, the government cannot establish a centralized religion based on one person--or President's--beliefs.

Rick Santorum may be Catholic, doesn't mean the rest of us have to be. Nor should we be Catholic. We live in a society where we cherish our First Amendment rights--which includes freedom of religion.

Meaning that we don't have to subscribe to a singular belief system--if we don't want to. Nor should we force people publicly to accept a range of beliefs that run countercurrrent to our own individual faiths.

Sadly, Rick Santorum wants to violate our Constitutional rights for the sake of religion. But what he doesn't understand is why it can't happen in a government setting?

The Constitution prohibits it.

However, that doesn't seem to be stopping Saint Rick. He believes that as President, he can do whatever he wants and our rights be damned.