Right-wing media figures are weighing in on the recent rhetorical tussle between Fox News contributors Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum - an exchange that Fox & Friends called the “first political kerfuffle of the 2012 Presidential campaign.”
The imbroglio started Tuesday when Santorum weighed in on Palin's decision to skip the Conservative Political Action Conference. As reported by Politico, Santorum implied that Palin's “paid speeches” are her “priority.” Politico further reported:
Santorum -- the father of seven children -- also said that Palin has “other responsibilities,” such as raising her children, that he doesn't.
“I don't live in Alaska and I'm not the mother to all these kids and I don't have other responsibilities that she has,” he said.
The next day, Politico reported that those remarks were criticized as sexist.
For her part, Palin spoke through Fox News, taking to Sean Hannity's show, where she responded that she would not call Santorum a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal ... I'll let his wife call him that.” Santorum later sought to explain his comments.
And cue the conservative media:
Here's Tammy Bruce opining:
Right Scoop, on the other hand, said that Palin “went a little overboard in her response” because Santorum “meant no ill-will.” Several other conservative commentators also wrote that, in their opinion, Santorum was not criticizing Palin or did not mean to, including NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez, Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard, Hot Air's AllahPundit, and Ace of Spades' Gabriel Malor.