Oddly, Andrea Mitchell's show has become a lightning rod in attracting outrageous and unbelievable statements from conservative ideologues.
Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Santorum's campaign was trying to explain away the candidate's over-the-line remarks about President Obama's "theology" in terms his "radical" environmental policies. That analysis is a joke in and of itself. The President has backed away from the very modest Republican devised Cap and Trade proposals. But for Santorum, holding a position consistent with science constitutes radicalism.
But Santorum, being the "authentic" conservative he is was not content to stop there. He sought to insert the dog whistle politics of inserting the president's "theology," (his tendency to be fact-based) into the mix. Apparently to Santorum, environmentalism is somehow akin to some sort of radical secularist point of view, because you know, only Godless people care about clean air, clean water, and the survival of our human habitat.
Enter, Ms. Stewart trying to explain away Mr. Santorum's remarks while essentially saying the same thing. As she was dumping on the radical secularist environmentalists, she pivoted over to an attempted denegration of President Obama, and in so doing she actually cited the president's RADICAL ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY.
What? I mean what the fuck lady!
But the wheels at the Santorum campaign must have been spinning because Ms. Stewart called back by the end of the show saying she had misspoken. The president follows a radical environmental ideology, not a radical Islamist policy.
Andrea Mitchell said she didn't notice the remark during the interview (actually, I can understand that because the woman was saying, blah, blah, blah, radical blah, blah, blah. Easy to tune out.) but that she'll take Ms. Stewart at her word there, that she misspoke.
And I believe her too. I think she really did choose the wrong word. Radical Islamist was only the phrase on her mind, not the one she meant to say publicly. It's merely the one that Santorum supporters believe, not the one the campaign wants to say out loud.
It reminds me of the FOX "news" helicopter on The Simpsons. "FOX news, not racist, but #1 among racists.