Depends On What The Meaning Of Pervert Is

Sam Heldman, in his invaluable ongoing expose of Federal Court nominee Pryor, linked today to this article in the Washington Post that points out Pryor’s use of almost exactly the same language to describe the effects of a right to privacy, (in an amicus brief he filed in the Texas sodomy case) to the language Santorum used in his AP interview.

Pryor:

“Petitioners’ protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, a constitutional right that protects ‘the choice of one’s partner’ and ‘whether and how to connect sexually’ must logically extend to activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia (if the child should credibly claim to be ‘willing’)”

Santorum:

If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.”

And, of course, Santorum also mentioned that the right to “man on dog” and “man on child” sex would inexorably follow any ruling upholding a right to privacy.

Pryor, as hideously theocratic as he is, isn’t quite as stupid as Santorum (even a sea anemone isn’t quite as stupid as Santorum) so he didn’t add bigamy and polygamy to the list of clear and present dangers to America, seeing as they are matters of contract law in which the state has an interest. (As, it would seem to me that adultery is as well. Any lawyers out there who can let me know if that’s correct?) But, he neglected to mention the serious threats of prostitution and necrophilia.

Does Rick Santorum think that prostitution and necrophilia aren’t among the serious problems affecting America today?

Perhaps he believes that prostitution is not a threat to his definition of what a politically correct family should be. Perhaps he doesn’t view it as consensual, since it’s obvious that many fine religious Republican men are bewitched by scantily clad women into doing things they shouldn’t do.

But, what to make of his not mentioning the immediate danger to our children by necrophiliacs?

Why wouldn’t he be concerned about people who might expose their small children to corpses, make them handle them and talk to them in strange and unusual rituals that the mainstream Americans find deeply disturbing?

Any ideas?