Picking on Rick Santorum’s Dead Child Is Fox News’ Dumbest Move Yet

on January 3, 2012 at 12:43 PM

How's this for crazy? The Rick Santorum campaign for the Republican nomination might have gotten a shot in the arm from the last place he expected it. It's safe to say Santorum is not looking up Fox News contributor Alan Colmes' address to send him a bouquet of roses today. But he shouldn't be too hard on the guy.

OK, so Colmes is the guy who just snarked on the way the GOP presidential candidate and his wife handled the death of their infant son 16 years ago. Just typing those words makes me a little sick to my stomach. But I'm not normally a Santorum fan.

Which is exactly where Colmes screwed up. If he can push a hard-nosed liberal like me to defend a gay-hating, anti-choicer like Rick Santorum, you know something's seriously wrong.

Colmes, a Fox Radio host, was telling Fox's Jon Scott about the Santorum's son Gabriel, who died two hours after being born prematurely at just 20 weeks old. At the time, Rick and Karen Santorum chose to bring their baby home, where they introduced him to their other kids before a burial the next day. But Colmes retelling of the story first reported in the Washington Post nearly seven years ago was supposed to undermine the Senator's current surge in the polls:

Once [voters] get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his 2-hour-old baby who died right after childbirth home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real.

Ugh. Really? Since when is picking on how a man grieves for his dead child a valid political commentary? How about talking about the man's racist comments about black people in Iowa this week or his plan to create a tax policy to push people toward traditional marriage. If you want to convince people Santorum is unfit for the presidency, you go after the issues that affect his actual candidacy.

This is the second time Santorum has faced harsh criticism for his parenting choices on the campaign trail, and the second time I can't help but feel sympathy for him. It doesn't take much to hear a tragic tale and feel a surge of compassion -- just being human. And what Colmes forgets is voters are human.

We take our whole bodies to the polls, including our hearts. And when pundits begin to attack politicians on such tenders subjects, we get our dander up.

What do you think of Colmes' comments about Santorum?

Image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr

About the author Jeanne Sager

writes articles for The Stir by day, slays closet monsters and bounds through bedtime stories with her elementary schooler by night. Diet Pepsi courses through her veins. The Phineas and Ferb soundtrack reverberates through her brain.

Filed Under: 2012 election, politics, media

Comments (105)|
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Comments (105)

Carey2006

on Jan 3, 2012 at 12:51 PM

His comments were TOTALLY out of line!

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Nonmember comment from Shelly

on Jan 3, 2012 at 12:58 PM

I tend to believe kids are off limits in general. There should be NO question when it comes to deceased children. What a jerk.

ashjo85

Colmes is an ass (and coincidently the most liberal talking head they have there). I never liked him as the liberal side of Hannity and Colmes, and just sucks that much harder on his own.

zandhmom2

on Jan 3, 2012 at 12:59 PM

Well, first off it should be stated that even though Alan Colmes is on Fox, he is extremely liberal. Secondly, as far as his comment goes, he's an ass.

Nonmember comment from Cookie

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Very out of line but I think it shows that he does not think straight in hard times. I understand taking the time to grieve but introducing the child to the other children in the family is weird/strange and tramatic for the other children. Obviously he was grieving but that was not clear thinking.

shada19

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:01 PM

His comments were way out of bounds, but he would not have been able to make them had Santorums not made the story public. Lesson learned: Keep your personal business out of the public eye or be prepared to face public scrutiny.

Nonmember comment from Oyoveyo

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:02 PM

See, if this had been Obama who had lost a child, and NBC had said the same thing, Jenny Erikson would have posted five articles praising it.

Nonmember comment from Gertie

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:04 PM

Out of line, Alan Colmes. Out of line.

butterflymkm

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:05 PM

I'm as liberal as they come (almost) but saying this was awful. I do believe (because her life was in danger) that them choosing to induce is akin to an abortion and that makes them hypocrites (specifically because most prolifers will still allow exception for rape, incest, or the mothers life but not santorum, he plainly said there is NEVER a reason tosave the mothers life) but I would never fault a persons grieving choices. I would never vote for him, and it probably isn't what I would do, but each person grieves differently and to make fun of them for that is despicable. There are plenty of other topics to touch on.

billsfan1104

on Jan 3, 2012 at 1:08 PM

Shada, so now because he made some of personal life public, he is open to the assinine and heartless comments Colmes made?? First, you should change your headline, FOX news had nothing to do with the comment and never ever made fun of Santorums kid. Just like when Ed Schultz called Laura Ingram a slut, some people didnt blame MSNBC and accuse them of making those comments. The same should be for Fox. With that being said, I congradulate you on calling out YOUR side for the dispicable comments that Colmes said. It is refreshing(even though you couldnt keep politics out of it), that you wrote a blog saying it was wrong.