By: Jared Edgerton, Contributing Writer

Senator Rick Sanotrum ripped into activist and sex columnist Dan Savage this week following a television appearance Savage had on Bill Maher.

On Bill Maher’s television show Savage was critical of the Republican presidential candidates’ stances on gay marriage, particularly Senator Rick Santorum and Representative Michelle Bachman for signing the Marriage Vow. The Marriage Vow calls for candidates to defend DOMA and work to pass an Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, these positions are held by main stream social Conservatives. The pledge also has some unorthodox provisions, such as having candidates promise to be faithful to their spouse, seemingly comparing slavery families favorably to present day single parent households, petitioning candidates to fight against the enactment of Sharia Law and working to ban pornography.

At one point in the program Savage directly referred to Santorum in a derragatory way and later said that he wished all Republicans were dead.

During Santorum’s tenure as a Senator, Savage led a campaign to have the name “santorum” mean a crude sexual act after Senator Santorum made disparaging remarks comparing gay marriage to man on dog sex.

Currently google recognizes the ‘sexual act santorum’ before Senator Santorum. During the presidential campaign Senator Santorum has referred to this as his “google problem.”

Savage’s interview has reignited his feud with Santorum who lashed out after the Maher interview.

“It’s filth. It’s, you know, this man has, has gone out there and tried to destroy my integrity. I mean, you’ve heard the whole issue of the Google issue. That’s Dan Savage. You know, it’s, it’s the lowest, you know, debasement of public discourse. It’s, it’s offensive beyond, you know, anything that any public figure or anybody in America should tolerate, and the mainstream media laughs about it. They, they, they kid about it. They write about it. They say: Oh, Santorum’s got a Google problem.”

Sanotrum then sent out an email to supports to try and rally support, and money, for his campaign.

“On last week’s episode, Maher hosted hate activist Dan Savage. Instead of focusing on the issues and having an intellectual conversation, they broke into vile attacks against me and other conservatives. I refuse to repeat these disgusting, sexually explicit references because these ridiculous attacks are far too inappropriate. However, I wanted to share my interview with Steve Malzberg of WOR in New York City – a responsible radio host who, like you and I, is disgusted by the media’s treatment of conservatives like us.

Imagine if this happened to a liberal. Maher and his friends in the Mainstream Media would hit the roof – and rightly so! But when it happens to a conservative, they applaud and laugh.

Some conservatives in the media like Sean Hannity have lambasted these attacks, but we have to do more! We cannot let such filth stand. Your contribution of any amount right now will help strengthen our campaign to protect us from these outrageous comments and obscene attacks in the future.”

Santorum’s campaign currently is lagging behind the other GOP contenders in fundraising numbers with just under two million.

After the show Savage recanted his comments calling it a stupid mistake.

“I was on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight. I was talking to someone at the party after the show, and they asked me how I thought it went. Okay, I said—and then I told them that I said something really, really stupid, half under my breath, and I was relieved that Bill and the rest of the panel didn’t hear it. But folks watching the show at home might have heard it… so… I want to apologize for… um… wishing all Republicans dead.

I don’t feel that way. My dad is a Republican. (Well, he says he’s an independent, but he hasn’t voted for a Democrat since JFK. My dad is a Republican.)

It was a stupid, rude, thoughtless remark. I regret it and I retract it and I apologize to anyone watching at home.”

Image Source: TPMDC