Santorum signs pro-marriage pledge promising personal fidelity
(CNN) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was initially “taken aback” by a pro-marriage pledge that asks presidential candidates to promise personal fidelity to their spouses, but said he ultimately decided to sign it.
“When I first read it, I was taken aback by it. I can't argue that I wasn't,” the former Pennsylvania senator said in an interview airing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But I understand why they're saying it, because it does undermine people's respect for the institution, respect for the people governing this country. If you can't be faithful to the people that you're closest to, then how can we count on you to be faithful to those of us who you represent?”
“The Marriage Vow – A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family,” is the creation of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative Christian group, and its CEO, Bob Vander Plaats.
"If you are looking at being at a leader of our great country, we would like to have you pledge personal fidelity to your own spouse and a respect for the marital bonds of others,” Vander Plaats told Iowa reporters, according to the Des Moines Register.
Other provisions in the pledge include promises to only appoint conservative judges, to remove anti-traditional marriage provisions in the tax code and opposition to any constitutional redefinition of marriage.
But despite his initial surprise at the reach of the pledge, Santorum told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that he “certainly felt comfortable signing it.”
“I pledged personal fidelity to my wife when I was married to her. And pledged the same, that I would not involve myself in any other relationships with anybody else who is married. So that's a pledge I've taken and I take every single day when I - as a married person - and feel very comfortable making that public statement,” Santorum said.
The conservative former senator has made least 15 trips to Iowa since December 2010, and just wrapped up a 10-city tour of the first-in-the-nation caucus state this week.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who was in Iowa to open her state campaign headquarters Saturday, also signed the candidate vow, her spokesman Alice Stewart confirmed.
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What a waste of...everything.
I have a pledge for him. If elected, I, Rick Santorum, promise to resign on January 21 2013.
I would like to see if Newt Gingrich would sign that pledge LOL.
Get Lizard Gingrich to drop his ghost campaign so Snookie Palin can get in now.
The Contract With American;
The Contract On America;
The No Tax Law Change (The Grover Norquist) Pledge – aka the pledge to continue a 30 shift of tax burdern away from the rich.
The No Debt Ceiling Increase Pledge – aka the pledge to make the US a deadbeat
The No Side Nookie Pledge – aka the we're holier-than-thou pledge
What is with all the gimmick Republicans. We don't care about this. You ran on jobs in 2010 and you've done nothing of substance. This year's Republican-controlled House of Representatives has done NOTHING – only a few, grandstanding bills have been passed.
Pay off the National Debt – Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the rich and restore rates back to the Clinton-era values which resulted in RECORD BUDGET SURPLUSES of $88B -then- $122B -then- $220B for the United States in 1998, '99. '00. Sign that pledge why dont you?
The GOP has become dictatorial to their own leadership.
I don't know what is more shallow: the simpletons who come up with these pledges, or the ones who sign them.
hey Rickie, you got my vote
Sorry, but the tide of change is upon us. This pledge is anti-civil rights, exclusive, hate-filled, and means nothing. It is the blow-hard club of special rights for whites. It is for tea party neanderthals; and by the way, Jesus would not sign it because it is not kind, it is exclusive, and it is arcing towards fascism.
Moron First focus on jobs
“I pledged personal fidelity to my wife when I was married to her. And pledged the same, that I would not involve myself in any other relationships with anybody else who is married. So that's a pledge I've taken and I take every single day when I – as a married person – and feel very comfortable making that public statement,” Santorum said.
There are a whole lot of loopholes in this statement and lots of wiggle room
“certainly felt comfortable signing it.”
And for that reason alone, I will feel "comfortable" never voting for you and do all within my power to see that you never darken the door of the Oval Office, hopefully, not even as a visitor.
You freak, you have slept overnight with the remains of your stillborn son and now this "pledge"?
I am surprised you were "taken aback" and thought it was a bit over the top.
How does creating pledges create jobs, these worthless Republicans have got to go, this is B.S.
Most of us make that promise in our marriage vows. Why do some of these republicans think that these ridiculous pledges are necessary? Don't they have enough integrity to just do what's right without signing a contract? I would never vote for anyone who finds it necessary to sign a pledge to behave.
He'd sign a compact with the devil.
Sign anything you want to Rick, you are going nowhere and will be out of the race by early next year. We found those weapons of mass distraction – remember?
The idiots are starting to come out of the woodwork now. I read that M. Bachman said slave children were better off than they are now. These are racist bigots who compete with pond slime for a place in American politics. They should go back up into their trees with their relatives.