We were going to post about Senator Rick Santorum's anti-Boston liberalism comments, but thankfully Michelle Malkin did it for us. Uh, what she said...

We will just add a few thoughts -

If Santorum had merely said that in general, liberal values in the mainstream make aberrent behavior more likely to occur at the margins, his comments would have been unremarkable. It's the attempt to connect that general observation to specific events and places that doesn't work; he offered nothing to demonstrate a specific causal relationship. And of course it comes off as an unwarranted attack on the good people of Boston. It shows a political tin ear if nothing else, not a good trait for a senator.

Ed Morrissey seems to argue, in a generally solid piece, that there's no connection to be made between aberrent behavior and the libertine mores of today's secular left: "Pedophilia has nothing to do with liberal sexual mores".

Santorum went wrong in being too specific. In disagreeing with Santorum, Morrissey goes wrong in being overly broad. Of course culture and societal values affect behavior. This in no way is an argument that individuals are not ultimately responsible for their own behavior. It's an argument for teaching good values.

Look at the Middle East today - A culture that embraces violent "jihad" gets more suicide bombers. Stating this isn't excuse-making for those that engage in terrorist acts. Is it such a stretch to even suggest that a society that embraces "whatever-floats-your-boat" sexual mores will get some additional activity at the margins that most people thankfully still consider detestable? Not really.

Still, Santorum should retract his comments and apologize to the people of Boston. So sayeth the lockstep conservative monolith.

Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO does not agree that Santorum should apologize.