An Idiot In Any Language

The Philadelphia Inquirer made this good catch this morning regarding our illustrious Senator Santorum and his rabidly-right-wing take on immigration (no amnesty, automatically "criminalizing" all illegals here right now, etc.):

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum seemed to be sending different messages to different audiences on his campaign Web site this week.

English-language visitors to www.ricksantorum.com encountered a home page filled with concern about the "amnesty-ridden proposal" the U.S. Senate adopted to deal with illegal immigration.

But a section of the site for Spanish readers made no mention of amnesty in its discourse on immigration. Nor did it refer to "rewarding criminal behavior" of illegal immigrants, as the English version did.

Jim Hoefler, a professor of political science at Dickinson College, noted: "The English version is kind of the Rick Santorum we know - no amnesty, law and order, tough guy. The Spanish version is a lot softer - we need to find a balance, that sort of approach."

But Virginia Davis, the Republican senator's spokeswoman, said Santorum was not deliberately crafting different messages for different people. She said the English version had been updated since passage of the Senate bill May 25 and that the Spanish had not.

"Probably next week we'll have the identical version in Spanish," she said.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that one, people.

Update 6/9: Here's more fun with Little Ricky courtesy of Will Bunch via Atrios.