Despite appearances to the contrary, there are Republicans in Brooklyn. Last Tuesday night, twenty-five of them gathered in a storefront in Bensonhurst to watch the results of the Iowa caucuses. There were Reagan posters on the wall and Domino’s boxes on a table. Gene Berardelli, the law chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party, took a poll: “Has anyone here actually met someone from Iowa?”
“I watched ‘The Music Man’ last week,” a voice said. “Does that count?”
The room was divided among Romney loyalists, Perry supporters, and libertarians who couldn’t quite stomach Ron Paul. But the story of the night was Rick Santorum. One of the men opened a laptop and Googled “Santorum,” and was shocked at what he found. “That’s ugly,” he said. “That’s not politics. That’s just trying to rip someone down.”
A visitor from Manhattan took out his smartphone and e-mailed those words to Dan Savage, the sex columnist and satirist, who was at home in Seattle with his husband and son. “Powerless and marginalized groups have always used humor and mockery as a weapon,” Savage wrote back. He added, “I wish every gay basher in the G.O.P. was handcuffed for life to a gay dude with a potty mouth and a sense of humor. It would serve ’em right.” Savage and Santorum have never met, but you could say that they are cyber-handcuffed together for life.
In April of 2003, Santorum, then a senator from Pennsylvania, sat for an interview with the Associated Press. The discussion turned to Lawrence v. Texas, a case before the Supreme Court, in which the plaintiff argued that anti-sodomy laws were unconstitutional, on the ground that adults have a right to privacy. Santorum disagreed. “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home,” he said, then “you have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does.” A healthy society, Santorum continued, would not condone sodomy or “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.”
“I’m sorry,” the reporter said. “I didn’t think I was going to talk about ‘man on dog’ with a United States senator. It’s sort of freaking me out.”
Santorum’s comments caused a minor stir. President George W. Bush defended him; Howard Dean attacked him. Then everyone seemed to forget about it.
Dan Savage’s readers did not forget. Savage writes a racy syndicated advice column, and a month after the A.P. interview he reprinted a letter from a reader: “If Rick Santorum wants to invite himself into the bedrooms of gays and lesbians (and their dogs), I say we ‘include’ him in our sex lives—by naming a gay sex act after him.” Savage, who has a long history as a bigot-baiter and civil libertarian (he started the “It Gets Better” project), pounced on the idea. He announced a contest, and readers wrote in with suggestions: “How about calling condoms ‘Ricks’?” In the end, Savage’s readers came up with an unprintable definition. If you have not yet Googled “Santorum,” take a deep breath first.
Savage built a blog, Spreading Santorum, and encouraged people to link to it. Since then, millions of Googlers have learned about “santorum” first and the ex-Senator second. In September, Santorum’s campaign appealed to Google for help, but the company refused, saying users who want “content removed from the Internet should contact the Webmaster of the page directly.” When Santorum gained momentum in Iowa, the blog saw an immediate spike in traffic.
“This is Yoda-level Google-bombing,” Michael Fertik, the C.E.O. and founder of the reputation-management firm Reputation.com, said last week. Joe Trippi, a campaign adviser to Howard Dean and John Edwards, agreed: “They had eight years to do something. They should have knocked this down a long time ago. It’s shocking to me that they let this happen.”
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Carter Eskew, who was Al Gore’s chief strategist in 2000, said. “If you don’t manage search, you’re insane. And it’s not difficult to do. I don’t even think the guy is doing stuff that kids who are running for president of their senior class in high school would be doing.”
“Frankly, there have been Web sites disparaging and parodying candidates as long as there’s been an Internet,” Michael Turk, who managed online operations for Bush/Cheney, said. “In ’04, we had a Web site where you could put in ‘Veterans for Bush,’ or ‘Michael Turk for Bush,’ or whatever, and then you’d print out a poster.” Wonkette, the liberal blog, encouraged readers to game the system. Turk recalled, “All of a sudden, people were going, ‘Wow, you can print a poster that says “Anal Rapists for Bush” ’ or whatever.”
Back in Bensonhurst, Russell Gallo, who held the remote, switched to CNN. “Change back to Fox News!” someone shouted. “They have hotter women!” No one in the room claimed to be a Santorum supporter, but Jacob Kornbluh, who writes a pro-Israel blog, said, “I could live with him.”
On TV, Santorum took to a podium and thanked his wife, God, and Iowa (in that order). Savage was asked by e-mail if he felt he had helped make history. “No,” he wrote, “I’ve made mischief.” ♦
