If I were running some sort of liberal version of the
New York Post, the headline would be obvious:
SANTORUM SCARED OF GIRLS!
No, it's true. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Delaware earlier this month for what was billed as a book signing and discussion, had his security team remove a handful of teen-age girls from the bookstore, when it became clear that they didn't agree with him that women shouldn't work outside the home, or that the government should act like the Catholic Church and discourage birth control.
Santorum espouses those views in his new book, "It Takes A Family" (which no doubt is a play off of Hillary Clinton's tome, "It Takes A Village"). And those views are controversial. Why, some women and girls may find them offensive and backward.
Even if Santorum wasn't interested in hearing the teen-agers out, you'd assume that as a proud Republican, he'd appreciate their right to free speech.
But, apparently, Santorum appreciated more the right to pick and choose who was in his immediate surroundings. Taking a page from the
Bush Administration (no pun intended), Santorum decided that there would be no dissenting views at the Barnes & Noble book signing and discussion that night.
According to an Aug. 14 column by Al Mascitti of the
Wilmington News Journal, "Rick Santorum's security team felt they were going to be a security threat and asked them to leave," said Amanda Winnington, the community relations manager for the store.
Let me repeat that tabloid headline:
SANTORUM SCARED OF GIRLS!The problems began when one of the teen-age girls joked that Santorum, who is notably against gay rights, should autograph a book penned by a gay author.
"That drew the attention of someone on Santorum's advance team," Mascitti wrote. According to 18-year-old Hannah Shaffer, the woman "called them shameful and said she was disgusted by the reasons they were there, that they should be there to support
."
Off-duty Delaware State Police Sgt. Michael DiJiacomo, who was hired for the occasion through a private security service, then told the girls to leave, or face arrest.
When the girls protested that they hadn't done anything, DiJiacomo told them they were under arrest. Stacey Galperin, a University of Delaware student, said that after removing her and friend Miriam Rocek from the store, "He told Miriam to put her hands on the car and kept telling us, 'You're going to embarrass your family, you won't get into college with this on your record.' "
Now before you blow this off as the work of an overzealous security ageny, consider what Hannah Shaffer's mother, Heidi, told Mascitt:i: "What (DiJiacomo) told me was, 'They don't want you there,' that it was all under the direction of Santorum. ... I called Santorum's people and they've denied it to me, but I got the impression they didn't want anyone there who didn't agree with him."
Mascitti said that later, the official policy became that only customers with a receipt proving they had purchased the book -- seemingly those who agreed with Santorum -- were allowed near the senator.
No wonder Santorum doesn't want to run for president. Can you imagine the headlines?
SANTORUM SCARED OF GIRLS!
***
This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.
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