Speakeasy: Savage asked why Santorum didn’t change name

Published January 5, 2012 5:00am ET



“I’m getting letters from people who think that the neologism came first — [that] this was actually what ‘santorum’ meant and that Santorum was burdened with this unfortunate last name and why didn’t he change his name before he ran for president.”

– “Savage Love” syndicated columnist Dan Savage on Wednesday night’s edition of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” In 2003, after Sen. Rick Santorum equated homosexuality to beastiality, Savage created a new, nasty definition for “santorum” that stayed atop the Google rankings until recently, giving the GOP presidential hopeful a “Google Problem.”