Santorum regrets 'throw up' response to Kennedy speech

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Only because of the reaction - on Sunday he 'stood by his remarks'

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Sunday stood by his remarks that efforts to prevent religion from playing any role in public life made him want to “throw up.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/212589-santorum-continues-to-face-questions-on-nclb-vote-

He first made the 'throw up' remark in Oct 2011 - and asked about it on Sunday, he said:

STEPHANOPOULOS: That speech has been read, as you know, by millions of Americans. Its themes were echoed in part by Mitt Romney in the last campaign. Why did it make you throw up?

SANTORUM: Because the first line, first substantive line in the speech says, "I believe in America where the separation of church and state is absolute."
...
STEPHANOPOULOS: You think you wanted to throw up?

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: -- the perfect remedy. Well, yes, absolutely, to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can't come to the public square and argue against it, but now we're going to turn around and say we're going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-rick-santorum/story?id=15785514&page=5#.T00wJqh96Sp

There's no way he can claim it was just a spur of the moment phrase - he fully backed it, on Sunday. He agreed it twice, said it twice, and even seems to say it should make every American throw up too.