Yeah, I dunno. I may be in the minority here, but I'm just not buying that this actually was what it sounds like. As much as I dislike Santorum's stances, particularly in the social arena, he's not a stupid man and I find it extremely difficult to believe that he was actually going for the so-called N-word. Don't get me wrong--I don't doubt that he IS an intolerant racist homophobe, I'm just not buying that that's the word that was in his mind or even in his subconscious. I think it's just your classic case of twisted tongue, and it happened to be a combination of sounds that imply probably the worst racist epithet in the language. He's a no-hoper anyway, so some on the left will seize on it and trash him, some on the right will praise him and say he should have let 'er rip, and in the end it won't mean a thing anyway since he'll throw in the towel soon regardless.