Earlier today, Rick Santorum's newly installed press secretary, Alice Stewart, appeared on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." When she addressed Santorum's accusations that Obama's environmental policy was based on "phony theology," she claimed that what her boss meant was that it was undergirded by "radical Islamic policies." I'm not kidding.
Did anyone just hear a dog whistle? We already knew that Santorum was trying to establish himself as the candidate of choice for the fundies, but this proved it.
Stewart apparently realized she stepped in it--she called MSNBC a few minutes after the interview to say she really didn't mean it.
Mitchell later said on the air that Stewart phoned the show after the interview to say she had slipped up and said “radical Islamic policies” instead of Obama’s “radical environmental policies.”
Mitchell noted she had missed Stewart’s phrasing of “radical Islamic policies” during the live interview.
“She had repeatedly said during that same interview ‘radical environmental policies’ and she said she slipped when she apparently said [it],” Mitchell said. “I did not hear it, or I would have caught her on it and tried to get a correction at the moment. I really, frankly, did not hear her use the word Islamic, but the tape tells the tale.
Please. Does anyone seriously believe that was a mistake? There's a pretty big difference between saying "environmental" and "Islamic." It only makes Santorum look even more amateurish than he already is. We're talking about a guy who has no campaign headquarters, remember.