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Editorial: Senator has forsaken a right to leadership

Monday, April 28, 2003 | 8:46 a.m.

In an April 7 interview with the Associated Press, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., started out by innocuously arguing that conservatism is better than liberalism. Then he began expressing support for state laws banning homosexual sex -- even in the privacy of one's own home. If you have that right, he 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."

Santorum continued in this vein for some time, piling one insensitive remark onto another. Santorum has the right to speak his mind and people have a right to be offended. We join with those who are saying his remarks were so offensive that he has forsaken the right to hang on to his leadership position within the Republican Party. He is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the No. 3 position. If Santorum does not step down willingly, the Republican Party should force him to do so. The Republicans realized the message they would be sending if they kept Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., as majority leader after his insensitive racial remarks. The same message will be sent if Santorum is not similarly sanctioned.

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