Chris Christie, a top Mitt Romney surrogate, says it’s fair game to go after Rick Santorum for raving in 2008 that Satan himself is on the warpath against the blessed USA.
“Listen, I think anything you say as a presidential candidate is relevant,” the New Jersey governor told ABC News on Wednesday. “It is by definition relevant. You’re asking to be president of the United States. I don’t think [Santorum’s] right about that. I think it is relevant what he says. I think people want to make an evaluation, a complete evaluation of anyone who asks to sit in the Oval Office.”
Christie was referring to a 2008 quote from Santorum at a Catholic university in which he said “the father of lies has his sights on what you would think the father of lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country — the United States of America.” Conservative pundits, especially those with ties to the Romney campaign, highlighted the old line on Tuesday as part of a broader message that Santorum is too extreme and divisive to be president.
Santorum, for his part, defended the quote on Tuesday, calling the controversy “a joke.”
“You know, I’m a person of faith. I believe in good and evil,” he told reporters in Arizona. “I think if somehow or another because you’re a person of faith you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president we’re going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president.”
This is the second time this month Santorum and Christie have picked opposite teams for a culture war skirmish. After Whitney Houston died, Santorum took to CNN with a jeremiad condemning her drug abuse and the example she set for impressionable children. Christie, by contrast, praised Newark-born Houston as “a daughter of New Jersey” and strongly defended her from such attacks, saying he “reject[s] that on a human level.” He even ordered flags lowered to half-mast throughout the state on the day of her funeral.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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