Frothy Mix Dogs GOP 2012 Contender

Former Sen. Rick Santorum's potential bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination continues to be dogged by Dan Savage's eight year-old website.

Roll Call asked Santorum why he didn’t reach out to Google to try to remedy the problem. He said he never contacted the search giant directly, and his longtime consultant John Brabender dismissed the problem as a matter of free speech. “There’s still the First Amendment,” Brabender said. But Roll Call has learned that former staffers consulted technology experts years ago about their options. Ultimately, they found there was little they could do. “You can bury anything on the Internet,” said David Urban, a Santorum ally and former chief of staff for former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.). “But at what financial cost and at what political cost? You can bury a bad story. But how do you bury your own name?” Urban suggested that Santorum could use the Google problem to his advantage. “The site’s completely gross. But I don’t think it’s a problem politically for Rick running for president. Quite the opposite,” he said. “If you’re Rick Santorum and you’re making an argument that there’s certain people that wish you ill, there’s exhibit No. 1. You say: ‘You want to see my battle scars? Google my name. You don’t think I’ve been in the trenches for years? I’ve got the scars to prove it.’”

For those unaware, here's the quote that spawned Spreading Santorum: "And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does." Santorum added that the repeal of laws against consensual sodomy opened the door to legalized "man on child, man on dog" sex. Keep hitting that link, folks.