Rick Santorum is as Crazy as a Cinema Henry VIII, or a Fox (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | The dropped pizza crust hit the table with a "bang" loud as a pistol shot. Rick Santorum, who had just finished consuming the soft center of the slice, looked on imperiously, every bit as self-satisfied and privileged as Charles Laughton playing Henry VIII. It was the same kind of moment when Laughton nonchalantly throws a turkey bone over his shoulder in The Private Life of Henry VIII. It was startling not only for its chutzpah but its vulgarity.
Santorum brushed the detritus of pizza crust dust off of his finger tips before grabbing another slice.
It was at the moment I recovered from the shock of the sound and sight of a former senator casually dropping a large pizza crust from a height parallel to his mouth without any regard to propriety that I was convinced Santorum was crazy. As crazy as those men (and occasionally, women) who, each four years, submit themselves to the absurd marathon that is the race for the presidency.
Steady Eddie
I met Santorum when I attended a campaign event at his Bedford, N.H., headquarters in early December. There were perhaps 30 people in attendance, nearly a third of whom were small children, as the theme was a Toys for Tots gift drive. Many of the audience seemed to be staffers.
Santorum lagged behind in the polls not only in New Hampshire, but in Iowa. A deeply religious social conservative, the press was reporting that a major evangelical Christian political committee Santorum had courted was going to endorse Newt Gingrich.
It all seemed kind of hopeless. The spaces on the sign-up sheets for the phone banks were mostly blank for the entire month of December. The only press was a freelance photographer. Yet, Rick Santorum soldiered on.
Santorum told the crowd that despite lagging in the polls, the GOP voters -- like Goldilocks -- would eventually find out that he was "just right." Here was a man with designs on the most powerful office in the world comparing himself to Baby Bear in a children's fairy tale.
After the speech, the pizza arrived and I broke bread with Santorum. And was soon shocked by his insouciance.
This guy is crazy, I thought, and soon left.
His strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, where he finished just eight votes behind Mitt Romney, proved that Rick Santorum is crazy. Crazy like a fox.
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