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Oh for chrissake (if you’ll pardon the expression). Here is Rick Santorum early last year:

“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” Santorum said in Spartanburg on Tuesday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.”

….After asserting that Christianity had not shown any “aggression” to the Muslim world, the former Pennsylvania senator — who is considering a 2012 run for the White House — argued that American intervention in the Middle East helps promote “core American values.”

“What I’m talking about is onward American soldiers,” he said. “What we’re talking about are core American values. ‘All men are created equal’ — that’s a Christian value, but it’s an American value.”

Every time one of these yahoos surges in the polls, we all take a deep breath and then start cataloging both their past and current tsunami of insane public statements. This time, I’m not sure I have it in me. On a pure policy basis, I can’t say that Rick Santorum is really much worse than any of the other GOP candidates this year, but on a purely personal basis I find him by far the creepiest of the lot. I feel like I have to wash my hands whenever I write a post about him.

Via Mark Kleiman, who has more to say about this.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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