Santorum on Marianne Gingrich accusations: These are issues of character

Rick Santorum walked a fine line in his response to questions about Marianne Gingrich’s accusations against her ex-husband and Santorum’s GOP rival, Newt.

“Personal matters are personal matters, but they are matters that are — particularly when you are in public life as he was at the time and the people involved were also in a sense in public life — those issues are issues that people will look at,” Santorum responded.

“I believe in forgiveness, I’m called to believe in forgiveness,” he continued. “I do believe having some accountability to a higher calling other than self is a very, very important aspect and perspective that is important for leaders.

“To make the final comment, these are issues of character and these are issues that people will consider based upon the time, when, where, how all those thing will factor in and I’ll let people make that decision, I’m certainly not going to make it for them,” he said to a crowd of about 150 people.

If you hadn’t been ZOT’d I’d have been happy to debate the so called ethics violation investigations, none of which EVER BORE ANY FRUIT!!!

Think about that. 86 charges and the Democrats couldn’t find him violation of one of them.

Then again, that wasn’t goal.

They wanted to bury him, send him off tempo and keep him so busy he couldn’t effectively run as the leader and complete his agenda.

Too bad, cry babies. He completed 2/3rds of his stated agenda and it was on the really important issues of the day.

Welfare Reform. Check

Reduced Taxes. Check

Balanced Budget. Check

A majority of Republican representatives. Check

In fact, the foundation of Representatives Newt helped usher in made it possible to, once again, acheive a majority under George Bush.

And your contention that Boehner brought us a majority in 2010 is so much pablum and he was never a factor in the race.

That majority was a direct of a dissatisfied and abuse electorate who came together in the TEA Party and through our grass roots efforts alone we found and supported new representatives more closely aligned with our political ideals.

And that is the crux of politics. “Our Political Ideals”

50 posted on Friday, January 20, 2012 7:55:51 PM by Hildy: “How about Santorum’s wife living with an abortionist 40 years her senior. I guess Rick forgave her.. Not a character issue?”

Marrying a virgin is not now a biblical requirement for office in either church or state, though I'm certainly aware of the Levitical rules regarding marriage of priests.

Also, to my knowledge nobody has questioned the sincerity of Mrs. Santorum’s repentance and made it a public issue in the current campaign.

Since Gingrich's personal repentance **HAS** been questioned, here are detailed comments on Free Republic by a pastor who knows him personally, Rev. Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2822096/posts

I find Rev. Garlow’s comments to be helpful, and I think every Freeper with concerns about Gingrich needs to read what he wrote before saying anything more publicly.

I'm going to stay out of most of the rest of this thread because it's turning into a slugfest I find unhelpful. But I do believe the integrity of Santorum’s wife deserves some public defense.

My first goal is to defeat President Obama, and my second goal is to keep Mitt Romney from winning the Republican nomination. I have my preferences, but I can live with either Gingrich or Santorum, and I realize those of us who are Santorum supporters are probably going to have to make our peace with Gingrich as the nominee. I have major concerns about how we're going to do that, but conservative evangelical voters in a Bible Belt state like South Carolina voters gave Gingrich a double-digit margin, so it's obviously possible.

Gingrich has his faults, but he has a valid track record of doing what most people thought was impossible, namely, taking back the House of Representatives and becoming Speaker. I've never been a terribly enthusiastic supporter of Santorum, either, and while I will probably vote for him in the Missouri primary (Gingrich isn't even an option since he isn't on the ballot), I wish Santorum were running for governor or senator to get rid of the “loser” reputation before running again for president.

Either Gingrich or Santorum would be a **WHOLE** lot better than Obama, so let's try to keep that in focus. I can vote for either of them with confidence that if elected, they'll work hard to undo much of the damage Obama has caused.

I can't say that about Romney, and for now, our energy needs to be focused on how to defeat him in the primary so we can defeat Obama in the general election.

Up till this moment, I liked Rick as a person (But he’s not strong enough to kick Zero’s Butt).

But he should have answered that inappropriate question the same way Newt did...that it was an INAPPROPRIATE QUESTION!

SOMEBODY has GOT to stand up to the Left-Media-Academia-Entertainment-World Cartel.

THAT was what the crowd gave Newt a standing Ovation for, and Rick could have gotten accolades too, if he had resisted the temptation to snipe at his opponent.

I’m arguing his lawful wife is Jackie, so clearly you’ve not understood what I’m arguing. :)

Don't know about anyone else, but I understand. And it's dumb, dumb, dumb.

Oh, well, at least you gave us something to have fun with...

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