Rick Santorum could teach CNN a lot about honor, decency, and American history.

The aggressively liberal cable news network last weekend terminated the punditry contract of Santorum, the conservative Republican former senator from Pennsylvania, in response to inartful comments Santorum made about Native Americans in an April speech. Yet Santorum’s comments, made as an ad-libbed aside and without malice, were far less objectionable than was CNN’s handling of the matter.