He didn’t know.
But the names are linked. People, as stupid as it may sound, will think “wait a minute, he sponsored him for an award”.
The payoff is the “controversy”. Remember Rick Perry and the ranch? He tanked over that.
Santorum will do so here.
Agreed. That's what happens when the media is controlled by the left. Perry was castigated about a painted rock, and now Santorum is in trouble because a popular coach is (later) revealed to be a sexual predator.
But it's perfectly fine that Obama sat in America-hating Jeremiah Wright's church for a quarter of a century, that he is a close friend of convicted terrorist Bill Ayers, that he was up to his eyeballs in convicted felon Tony Rezko's chicaneries, etc., etc., ad infinitum.