Rick Santorum, Satan and Hitler walk in to a bar...

I have to chuckle that GOP presidential candidate, and uber-Catholic, Rick Santorum is being blasted by GOP propagandists Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh for - what? - basically being a Christian.  The Republican party let itself be taken over by Christianists (aka thumpers) a long time ago, and to now pretend that a Republican leader believing Satan is interested in harming America is somehow controversial, strikes me as a bit naive, or better yet, disingenuous.

Not to mention, of all the things Rick Santorum has said and done, it's his belief in Satan that most freaks people out on the right?  Seriously, guys?

What Santorum said that's now causing such angst among the Limbaugh/Drudge crowd is not exactly something the Republicans haven't been saying for years.  1) God exists. 2) Therefore Satan exists. 3) Republicans think God, and specifically Christians (and preferably Catholics or Baptists) should be running the country and imposing Christian-based laws on the rest of us. 4) Other religions, and even other versions of Christianity, don't count. 5) That Republicans are the party of God (pun intended). 6) And that Democrats aren't (thus the Obama is Muslim meme, among others).

I'm sure I'm missing a few.

What did Santorum say that didn't fit into that nice neat package?

Honestly, as a Christian myself, the only thing I can really find in what he said that annoys me is his suggestion that other Christian religions, and I think he means "liberal" Christian faiths, don't really count.  That's typical of Republicans, but it's obnoxious to hear it said so directly.

Nonetheless, Santorum said nothing outside of the mainstream of GOP thinking, and most of it doesn't really strike me as that far out of Christian thinking generally. (I mean, if there is a Satan, would be trying to corrupt our country?  Sure, why not.)

I'm happy to challenge someone over their obnoxious religious beliefs.  (Mitt Romney and his gay-bashing, anti-Semitic, racist, sexist jam-our-rules-down-your-throat Mormon friends come to mind.)  But getting all over Rick Santorum because he believes in Satan?  I'm just not feeling it.

Now what should bother people is Santorum's comparison of Barack Obama to Hitler.  I've got a feeling that Drudge and Limbaugh couldn't care less about that one.  More on that later this morning.