There were a multitude of idiotic things said during Round 1 and 2 of the CNN Republican Debate, but something Santorum said just turned into a splinter under my skin and has bugged me all night. It just so happens to be in a section of debate about Kim Davis. You know, the Kentucky clerk hypocrite who also happens to be a bigot and claims it is in her religious right….

The question asked:

TAPPER: …Before we took the break, you were all chomping at the bit to talk about Kim Davis, that Kentucky clerk.

Governor Pataki said he would have fired Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Senator Santorum, do you agree with Governor Pataki?

Santorum went into a long-winded response but at one point, he felt that if he brought in MLK, then he would win some points with people.

SANTORUM: Martin Luther King wrote a letter from the Birmingham jail. And he said in that letter that there are just laws and there are unjust laws. And we have no obligation to — to condone and accept unjust laws.

And he — and they — then he followed up and said what’s an unjust law?

An unjust law is a job that — a law that go against the moral code or God’s law or the natural law.

I would argue that what the Supreme Court did is against the natural law, it’s against God’s law and we have every obligation to stand in opposition to it.

Santorum apparently has no clue, or does not care, as to what Martin Luther King, Jr., fought for, which was equal rights — he was not fighting to put the bible in the law, as Santorum seems to indicate. Simply equality – equal rights for all. Santorum took a quote from MLK, Jr., and twisted the words so they would fit his argument.

MLK, Jr., also said in the same letter:

Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality.

Granted, homosexuality in those days was still buried deep in the closet. I wanted to scream at Santorum that Dr. King would have sided with the right for gays to marry, not to allow the clerk to decide who can and who cannot be married. King may not have agreed with homosexuality – we don’t know – but he believed in equal rights for all. Simply replace "Negroes" with "minorities" to bring his statement into today’s generation. Same-sex marriage is a minority, and, until recently, the courts treated them unfairly. Kudos to the Supreme Court for doing what was right. And boo-hiss to Santorum for twisting the words of a great historical leader for his own personal gain.

Guess this just goes to show why Santorum was in the First Round.

(Transcript quoted above available here.)

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