The blatant shucking and jiving to the extreme right continues as Mittens, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum and other luminaries drop the masks to engage in outlandish theocratic pandering on social issues at a conference put on by a well-known Beltway hate group – the Family Research Council. My favorite headline generated from this bigot fest has to be this one from Buzzfeed – truer words cannot be uttered: It’s not an exaggeration of what the former candidate in the GOP 2012 Presidential Clown Car uttered to the bible-beating faithful, either.

“We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country,” Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, told the audience at the Omni Shoreham hotel. “We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”

That may be the first time I agree with the aggressively homophobic former Senator from Pennsylvania. I happened to watch the unreal speech given by GOP veep nom Paul Ryan and his diatribe was so laced in theocratic bullsh*t (it was aired live in its entirety on CNN, by the way), I told Kate to turn it off. It was grotesque — and delivered in such an earnest fashion and received with thunderous affirmation that it was frightening. He didn’t dwell on marriage equality at all (one throwaway line), but he had a lot to say about reproductive freedom.

Giving up any further pretense of moderation on this issue, and in complete disregard for millions of pro-life Democrats, President Obama has chosen to pander to the most extreme elements of his party.  In the Clinton years, the stated goal was to make abortion  safe, legal and rare.  But that was a different time and a different president.  Now, apparently, the Obama-Biden ticket stands for an absolute, unqualified right to abortion at any time, under any circumstance, and even at taxpayer expense.

When you get past all of the president’s straw men, what we believe is plain to state: These vital questions should be decided not by the caprice of unelected judges, but by the conscience of the people and their elected representatives. And in this good-hearted country, we believe in showing compassion for mother and child alike.  We don’t write anyone off in America, especially those without a voice.  Every child has a place and purpose in this world.  Everyone counts, and in a just society, the law should stand on the side of life.

And what about the guy at the top of the ticket? Team Romney didn’t want his pander-monium speech getting much media play; the video didn’t drop until drop dead Friday — after 10:30 PM. Wonder why he didn’t want maximum eyeballs on his social issues platform stumping?

Although covered by several media organizations, the only video of the address — in which the Republican presidential candidate reaffirmed his ticket’s support for “the sanctity of life” and opposition to “redfin[ing]” marriage — is from cameras focused on the video screen at the conference. Saying that “commitments on the campaign trail prevent me from being with you,” Romney gave a three-and-a-half minute, pre-recorded video address to the annual gathering of political social conservatives, beginning with his desire to “thank Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council for their leadership.” Perkins has faced opposition from organizations on the left, including the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“We need a president who shares our commitment to conservative principles and our respect for traditional values. We will uphold the sanctity of life, not abandon or ignore it. And we will defend marriage, not try to redefine it,” Romney said in the video. He went on to ask for the summit attendees’ support and help in the dwindling days until the November 6 election.

UPDATE: Today there was a protest by GetEQUAL at the Summit, and they were roughed up by the “Christian” group.

This video shows just how rough the security guards were with GetEQUAL activists, but also shows the violence of the attendees of the conference. Some yelled “Get out of my sight” and “I’ll kick your ass,” while another followed the activists out, yelling “Your lack of values are killing us” (particularly creative, we thought). Though the activists were not resisting the guards, over and over they were thrown around unnecessarily, and kicked by onlookers.