February 12, 2012

Rick Santorum fails to recognize a quote — about "radical feminists" — from his own book.

Pushed, he says his wife wrote that part!

Oh, lord. He's taken to task over a passage in his 2005 book "It Takes a Family." And it's the passage that Jennifer Rubin brought up a couple days ago in her column in The Washington Post. Remember? We talked about it here.

How lame is it not to know what's in your own book... especially something that was just spotlighted in WaPo? And then to say my wife did it? Weak!

ADDED: Below is the colloquy in the transcript. Strangely, it doesn't seem to have the part where he attributes the writing to his wife. It's not in that passage, which seems to be the relevant passage, and I've run a search of the whole document for "wife" and "Karen" and found nothing. I'm now questioning the story at the link above, which is by Brian Knowlton in The New York Times. [UPDATE: More material has been added to the transcript, supporting Knowlton's article, and I'm expanding the material below, accordingly. I'll put the newly added material in italics so you can see what was missing.]

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've raised a lot of eyebrows with some of your comments about women, those comments the other day about women in combat, where you suggested that shouldn't happen because of the types of emotions involved. I know you were talking about the emotions of men who are -- who are alongside the women, but also in your book, "It Takes a Family," where you seem to suggest that a lot of women feel pressure to work outside the home because of radical feminism.

And what do you say to those who worry -- believe that those kind of comments are going to alienate women, make you an easier candidate to beat in a general election?

SANTORUM: Well, that section of the book was co-written, if you want to be honest about it, by my wife, who is a nurse and a lawyer. And when she gave up that practice and she gave up, you know, nursing to raise a family, I mean, she felt very much that society was sort of -- in many cases, looked down their nose at that decision. And all I've said is -- and in talking with my wife and others like her -- who've given up their careers that they should be affirmed in their decision like everybody else and that these are choices, and they're tough choices.

You know, I grew up in a home where my mom and dad both worked. This was back in the '50s and '60s, and -- which was very unusual. My mom actually made more money than my dad. So I grew up in a home where that was something that -- that was a given, women in the workplace, and something that I obviously accepted.

But I think it's important that women both outside the home and inside the home are affirmed for their choices they make, that they are, in fact, choices, and society, you know, treats them in a sense equally for whatever decision they make that's best for them.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say that now, but you also wrote in the book that radical feminists have been making the pitch that justice demands that men and women be given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace. Isn't that something that everyone should value?

SANTORUM: Yeah, I have no problem -- I don't know -- that's a new quote for me. I don't know what context that was given. But the bottom line is that people should have equal opportunity to rise in the workforce. And, again, if you read the entire section, I don't think anyone will have a problem with the fact that what I was calling for -- very clearly calling for is the treatment of an affirmation of whatever decision women decide to make.

51 comments:

Toad Trend said...

I did not post this message.

I really didn't. My wife did.

Did so!!!

Andy said...

How lame is it not to know what's in your own book... especially something that was just spotlighted in WaPo? And then to say my wife did it? Weak!

Joke candidate is jokey.

I'm glad to see Althouse is joining me in mocking and laughing at this idiot.

mesquito said...

What pol, besides Churchill and Pat Moynihan, ever wrote his own book?

mesquito said...

Isn't that Andy, the Occupy moron?

Jason said...

Great proof that most popular people and politicians who write "autobiographies" or other works really, in the end, dont write one word.

raf said...

...politicians who write "autobiographies" or other works really, in the end, dont write one word.

Or read them, actually.

Alex said...

Uh oh.

Alex said...

I find it funny the idea of Andy deciding who is or isn't an idiot.

m stone said...

Anyone who has written a book, in this case nearly eight years after editing, knows that passages are lost to memory.

Add 90,000 words to all else you've written and spoken since and it's often a blur.

edutcher said...

OK, close to 500 pages, so I'd ordinarily give him a pass on a specific quote, but, as the Gray Lady notes, his name is the only one on the credits yet he claims his wife did that.

Ricky, you got some 'splainin' to do.

PS Let's see the freakier part of the Rightosphere blame this one on Rove or Milton.

Andy R. said...

How lame is it not to know what's in your own book... especially something that was just spotlighted in WaPo? And then to say my wife did it? Weak!

Joke candidate is jokey.

I'm glad to see Althouse is joining me in mocking and laughing at this idiot.


Why don't we have somebody like Rush quiz GodZero on what's in his books?

Then we'll see who's the real joke.

WV "godop" What the Blues Brothers were on.

David said...

Truth is weak sometimes.

It would have been so much better if he had lied.

Saint Croix said...

my dog ate my homework. No, wait, my dog wrote my homework.

Meade said...

It takes a feminist - not necessarily a radical feminist, but a feminist - to allow his wife to write his book for him.

Meade said...

Maybe I shouldn't - because of all the emotions involved - but, yeah, I let my wife write my blog for me.

It's called Althouse.
Ever heard of it?

sakredkow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rhhardin said...

I've forgotten what people are angry about already, beyond that it's feminists.

I remember commenting that they were too emotional.

As to rising in the workplace.

Some people spend their entire worklives not rising even a tiny bit, and liking it. These are not feminists.

Generally they're engineers.

Anonymous said...

Ouch! Jeez, Althouse, why u need to point out such inconsistencies? You traitor! Can't you just toe the line like all other good conservatives? After all, Rick Santorum is going to be that great uniter, shepherding the public in under that Big Tent of Republicanism...

edutcher said...

Meade said...

Maybe I shouldn't - because of all the emotions involved - but, yeah, I let my wife write my blog for me.

And you seem such a manly man :)

Alex said...

I'm so sick of the "liberal" & "conservative" labels, they increasingly don't mean what YOU think they mean. People who use them are intentionally trying to obfuscate the issues.

DKWalser said...

Maybe Santorum's, like most husbands, wasn't really listening to what his wife said?

Hagar said...

I don't know; I sometimes remember things I have not done, and sometimes I forget things that I did do.

SteveR said...

I suppose one thing going for republicans is you get these things out of the way now. Obama survived a lot worse things in early 2008 and it was forgotten by election time. ..ur.. ummm... 2008? never mind

Michael Haz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chuck66 said...

The political scene as a whole is getting to be a joke. I wish it was more like a job interview for a high level job:

A) What have you accomplished in the past
B) If you get this job, what will you do

Fen said...

*groan*

edutcher said...

Dead Julius said...

Ouch! Jeez, Althouse, why u need to point out such inconsistencies? You traitor! Can't you just toe the line like all other good conservatives? After all, Rick Santorum is going to be that great uniter, shepherding the public in under that Big Tent of Republicanism...

Yeah, Julie can't wait to accuse Santorum of being the Conservative who suppressed all those clerical abuse stories.

Right, Julie?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Professor-

Check the transcript again. I looks like it's been updated since you copied it. It now includes the reference to his wife.

pm317 said...

Sooner or later the true colors will be revealed unless you're Obama, in whose case the media never asks the questions it is damaging for him to to answer.

write_effort said...

I heard the interview and he did say his wife wrote that part.

Carol_Herman said...

The sooner Rick Santorum "evaporates" from your GOP contest, the better off you will be.

You know, I know republicans who have "lost faith" in what's going on now. Sane folk. Can't stand the hoopla being presented by all the dorky contestants.

Remember, too, that Romney's run before, back in 2008. But McCain got picked, instead.

What's going on now?

"Vote Republican, because it's the less awful candidate?" GOOD LUCK TO YA, ALL.

Carol_Herman said...

WAIT A MINUTE!

I've guessed that the democrats, after winning another term in the White House, will gear up and get ready to run Michelle Obama in 2016.

And, right here we have Rick Santorum ... explaining that his wife didn't just "proof-read" his autobiography. But she "ghosted portions."

Like a lady, not wanting to take credit.

Yup. Ready for prime time.

Shrinking republican label if I ever watched it shrink.

In 2012 ... What kind of odds does any republican candidate get? What if John McCain, the war hero, out-shines the 2012 contendah?

McCain, who got captured, got 47% of the total 2008 vote.

And, so far? The GOP is bleeding money, out of Romney's pockets.

And, Obama hasn't spent a penny, yet.

Who'd have thought this could happen? "Happy Days Are Here, Again," isn't just a song anymore.

Ann Althouse said...

"Check the transcript again. I looks like it's been updated since you copied it. It now includes the reference to his wife."

Thanks. You're right. It wasn't there before.

In fact, the indication that Santorum was speaking was missing, which is why I put his name in brackets when it first appears. Steph. asks a question, and you can see an answer is there, but no "Santorum" appears. So there was clearly a gap.

Really lame of ABC!

Harsh Pencil said...

Hat boy is one of the first commenters on every post. Hmmmm.

sakredkow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

No wonder Obama opposes same sex marriage: he'd have to marry Bill Ayers for ghostwriting his book.

Portia said...

Someones reaching.

Nit Picky or Pick Nitty, I'd call it.


Sheesh!!!!!

The Godfather said...

I don't support Santorum, but with the actual words now available it's clear that he said nothing shocking. In the first passage, when asked about how his opinion would be accepted by women, he said it was supported by one woman, his wife, that he obviously respects. In the second passage, he didn't recall the statement that Stephanopoulos paraphrased, but explained his general line of thought. Prof. Althouse and most of the commenters seem to have gone off half cocked before the relevant portions of the transcript were available.

bagoh20 said...

WTF does any of this have to do a bankrupt nation in need of new fiscal direction? No wonder a person who never had a real job can become leader of a nation in which jobs is the number one problem. We really don't deserve the right to vote if this stuff is what we care about in these times.

Opus One Media said...

.....now on to Sarah Palin's magnum opus......

jeff said...

"I'm glad to see Althouse is joining me in mocking and laughing at this idiot. "

While I have no interest in voting for him, I would be very interested in putting his accomplishments up against Andy R. Just for comparison. I wish I could be as tolerant as Andy R. so i could describe people I disagree politically with as idiots, rather than....you know....people I disagree politically with. But then I would have to refute their positions. Much easier to call them idiots.

bagoh20 said...

Yea, I always laugh when a liberal with no job, no money and no accomplishments calls Conservatives with all three "idiots". I would estimate that about 85% of the private "analysis" I read or hear from liberals includes the helpful "idiot" observation - clueless about the irony.

Kirby Olson said...

Someone once read a pssage from War and Peace to Tolstoy. He said, "Why that's wonderful! Who wrote it?"

DaveW said...

So why was that paragraph omitted from the original transcript? It changes what he said pretty significantly.

Sloanasaurus said...

I think Santorum may eventually be the nominee. Romney makes people uncomfortable in a way Santorum does not. Query now why Pawlety dropped out? But, then is pawlenty a better debater than Santorum? Not so sure about that.

The anti-woman thing is an old attack by the left. It was tried on McCain, etc...

I guess according to liberals, you are pro woman if you give out free contraception.

If Santorum can hone his discussion about the economy he will be a formidable candidate.

machine said...

uhhh...Rick Santorum makes a lot of people uncomfortable...

Damon said...

A lot of jumpin to conclusions in this post and the comments. The reconstructed history everyone is willing into existence isn't even close to the reality. Althouse is never one to sensationalize, but this post is closer to Jezabel than Althouse.

Damon said...

The Godfather @9:32 gets this right. No reason to recap.

Also, you are all castigating Santorum for being sexist in his comments which he got by listening to a woman who is in a place to comment. Get the irony?

No, you all look petty and idiotic, not Santorum. Do a gut check commenters. Your hate is repulsive and hypocritical.

Dante said...

There is only one answer, Mitt Romney.

roesch/voltaire said...

What else is a feminist suppose to do while staying at home but write paragraphs or blogs for their hard working bread winners?

Darrell said...

So now we know this is a non-story.
That is good to know.

And to those people that think that any great book contains only the exact original words of any author, I say you better do a little research. All books are edited and proofread for more than just spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Editors and those you invite to proofread suggest changes and deletions including new ideas and clarifications. The author usually has the final say as to what to include/ignore. And none of those contributions ever get recognized as co-authorship. Maybe a thanks on the acknowledgments page, if there is one.

Read about Hemingway, Sylvia Beach, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, Gertrude Stein , F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce.

Banshee said...

There's plenty of stuff I've written in the past that I don't remember now. I'll stare at a piece of paper in my own handwriting, admire the thought, but not remember having it.

I suspect that writing to a deadline tends to produce worse memory of one's final draft.

I also suspect that a lot of books are smoothed out by whoever types the final copy or does the last round of proofreading, which might well be his wife in the case of a guy author.

Shrug. Do people really think most executives write their own memos? Not if you're high enough up and senior enough.