The special circumstances of this year's presidential campaign and the emergence of Rick Santorum are a challenge to describe in any one language. For that reason, I'm pressing into service the wonderful descriptive qualities of Yiddish for my maiden voyage on this website adventure.
As many know, a mensch is a person of character, someone who displays noble values and actions. A momzer is pretty much the opposite, an SOB who lacks character and is untrustworthy in all respects.
Everybody has seen both in their lives. Mensches are rare, momzers more common. If you were lucky, your parents were mensches.
On the big stages of life (politics, world affairs, and the media figures who cover the players on these stages), it's particularly difficult to be a mensch consistenly. The stakes are high and the pressure is constant.
On the world stage, in the post World War II era, I would nominate the following as mensches: Eisenhower, Mandela, King, Gandhi, the Dalai Llama, Pope John XXIII, Anwar Sadat, Ezer Weizman, and Mother Teresa. As you can see, it's easier to be considered a mensch if you're dead. Amongst living American public figures, I would suggest Colin Powell, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.
Amongst media figures, my list includes Charlie Rose, Fareed Zakaria, Richard Engel, Christianne Amanpour, Tom Friedman, and the journalist recently killed in Syria, Marie Colvin.
Rick Santorum
This brings me to Rick Santorum. In his public life, as demonstrated by his conduct in this campaign, he has shown himself to be a sleazy, sarcastic, sanctimonious liar. He's a momzer, the likes of which we haven't seen in public life in decades.
Santorum is a slasher. He's a master of the crowd-pleasing attack to the jugular vein, followed by the sickening-sweet modification, explanation, and semi-denial after the damage has been done and the short-term advantage achieved.
Item: Speaking before an all-white audience in Iowa, Santorum sought to give the false impression that it is mostly black people who receive government assistance when he said, "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money…" Later, on Fox, he claimed he hadn't said, "black people". He said, "blah people". Really.
Item: Speaking before a rally in Ohio, Santorum characterized Obama's approach to government, saying, "…It's not about you, it's not about your job, it's not about your quality of life, it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology." Later, on CBS, putting on his most obsequious face, Santorum dismissed the idea that he was questioning whether the President was a Christian, stating, "He says he's a Christian." OK.
Item: In a recent campaign appearance, a woman prefaced her question to Santorum by stating Obama was, "…an avowed Muslim" and that "…he has no legal right to be calling himself President." Santorum remained silent.
In a very similar situation almost four years ago, John McCain took the microphone away from someone who made inaccurate charges, stating, "No ma'am, [Obama is] a decent family man, a citizen, with whom I happen to have disagreements."
What a difference. John McCain did the honorable thing. He was unwilling to stand there and let a number of untruths just hang in the air. He wasn't going to be a party to the slander. On the other hand, Santorum was more than happy to allow the stink of rotting garbage to hang in the air. In his view, there was no need to separate himself from the mood of the crowd…not when he was on a roll.
Item: In the last debate, Santorum found himself trying to explain his support for pro-choice Senator Arlen Specter in 2004. Santorum justified his support by claiming that, before pledging it, he extracted a commitment that Specter would support President Bush's judicial nominees. In other words, Santorum claimed that Specter pledged to support nominees before he even knew who they were. Former Senator Specter has said on a number of news programs that Santorum's assertion is, "flatly not true."
Conclusion
When John King, the moderator of the last GOP debate, asked each candidate to describe himself in one word, Santorum said: courage. That's the biggest whopper of the campaign.
Santorum knows that a significant portion of the far right, the full-moon crowd, is prepared to believe that Obama is a Muslim and that he was not born in this country. They need to believe this to justify their visceral hatred of him.
These people are Santorum's base. He will play in that pigsty for as long as there are votes to be had. Courage, honor, truth are concepts foreign to him.
Rick Santorum is a momzer.