This is lighting up Twitter. Colmes also uses the incident in a blog post today, linking to this 2005 WaPo article:
In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.
Upon their son’s death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen’s parents’ home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.
“That’s my little guy,” Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father’s hand.
Is nothing off limits?
Here’s my position on mourning, Obama at Dover:
President Obama made a trip to Dover Air Force Base to be present when the coffins of troops and DEA agents were returned from Afghanistan.
I have no problem with it.
One thing I’ve learned in life is that everyone mourns in his or her own way.
I reject the attempts by some on the left to use this event as an excuse to attack George W. Bush, who chose to mourn in private with the families of soldiers killed in action, rather than greeting coffins in public.
I similarly reject attempts by some on the right to use this event as an excuse to attack Obama, who chose to mourn at the scene of returning coffins with photographers recording an event he considered important.
To each, his own.
Video via Mediate:
The other thing this shows, once again, is how low the media will go against whoever the Republican nominee is, and how easy it will be for me to jump to that person’s defense, even if not the person I supported.
Update: Santorum reacted today on the campaign trail, via National Journal, Question on Newborn Has Santorum Fighting Back Tears:
In a dramatic moment on Monday, Rick Santorum fought back tears and his wife Karen grew misty-eyed when a voter asked them about criticism of their 1996 decision to bring home a newborn who died soon after childbirth.
Santorum choked up as he described the family’s decision to bring home their child Gabriel after the newborn died in the hospital. Noting that his wife worked as a neo-natal nurse, Santorum said: “It was so important … for the family to recognize the life of that child and for the children to know they had a brother.”
The exchange was prompted by a voter who said she had heard liberal Fox News commentator Alan Colmes criticize the decision to bring home the child. “To some who don’t recognize the dignity of all human life, who see it as a blob of tissue … this is somehow weird, recognizing the humanity of your son. Somehow weird, somehow odd and should be subject to ridicule.”
Earlier, as Santorum spoke, his wife Karen was heard to say: “It’s so inappropriate.”
Santorum concluded his response by restating his commitment to pursue an anti-abortion agenda. “I will stand and fight,” he said. “I will hope to be able to look into the eyes of the American public and say ‘Be more welcoming, open up your heart to love more, to love all life.”
Update No. 2 – The pressure must have been pretty intense:
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