Blame Boston

We apparently now know where Rick Santorum (R-Man on Dog) stands on the whole "heredity vs. environment" debate. It's environment by a mile. Not even the most pious of priests can control themselves in the lurid, seedy den of iniquity that is Boston, Massachusetts (or is it Taxachusetts?):

Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

You're blaming BOSTON for priests molesting young boys over a 40-year period? It's MIT and Harvard's fault? It's Aerosmith and Mission to Burma's fault? It's hot, sexy man-stud Michael Dukakis' fault?

This is coming from the party of self-reliance, remember. Those welfare queens have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps instead of blaming society. But the Church? They're simply too weak to succumb to the deep sexual allure of Beantown.

All the usual suspects (including the GOP governor of MA, Mitt Romney) are coming out of the woodwork to condemn this. It's a discredit to the state of my birth to have their senator be this batshit crazy, that he's blaming a city for sexual abuse rather than its practitioners.

I don't know how this bit of wingnuttery is going to help Santorum erase his 14-point deficit to Bob Casey Jr. in the 2006 Senate race. Or maybe he's just trying to beat Alan Keyes' record for the lowest vote percentage by a Republican Senate candidate.