For a guy who just wrote a stinging book about family values, Sen. Rick Santorum sure sounded mealy-mouthed when asked about U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood’s dalliances.

“I don’t know how it’s going to shake out,” Santorum said Monday during an appearance at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Plains Township. “All I would suggest is that, again, until we know all the facts and we look at the job that Congressman Sherwood is doing and make decisions based on the facts and the work he’s doing.”

Santorum dodged a reporter’s question about whether the allegations against Sherwood have hurt the Republican Party.

“I think what hurts and helps the Republican Party is what we’re doing in serving the American people,” he said, shifting the focus to the media, which he said likes to focus on racy and scandalous stories.

Pretty wishy-washy, huh? Especially since Santorum’s new book, “It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good,” lashes out at the nation’s “divorce culture” and “hostile cultural climate,” influenced by television shows such as “Sex in the City” and “Friends.”

Santorum’s remarks on Monday make us wonder what he really believes. Does he think that watching TV shows about sex is worse than a married man having a fling with a much-younger woman? Sherwood, 64, has admitted to some sort of relationship with 29-year-old Cynthia Ore and apologized, more or less, to his wife and three daughters. Three days after a Times Leader story ran on April 30 about a 911 call Ore made to police saying Sherwood started to choke her, Sherwood issued a statement saying he’s sorry for causing his family and supporters “pain and embarrassment.”

Ore has spoken in detail about their relationship and recently sued Sherwood for $5 million, alleging that he repeatedly beat her during their five years together.

Sherwood’s voting record displays his loyalty to conservative leadership – siding with the National Rifle Association, the Christian Coalition, the American Conservative Union and the National Right to Life Committee 84 to 100 percent of the time on issues important to those groups, according to Project Vote Smart, a non-partisan, non-profit clearinghouse for information on national candidates.

Apparently, Sherwood’s allegiance is paying off – at least with Santorum.

Pundits say Santorum’s book marks the first step toward a presidential run. It takes aim at Hillary Clinton – a likely 2008 contender – by saying the ideas in her 1996 book, “It Takes a Village,” boil “down to little more than feel-good rhetoric masking a radical left agenda.”

Santorum’s book contains many harsh words. We wonder, why didn’t he have any for Sherwood on Monday?

Times Leader, Jul 20, 2005

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