Chris Matthews spoke to GOP candidate Rick Santorum just after Wednesday's presidential debate, and it was just as freewheeling a conversation as one might expect.
"I figured I needed to get some airtime somewhere tonight," Santorum said by way of a beginning. Matthews asked the former senator why he hadn't addressed the social issues he is well known for caring about, such as same sex marriage or abortion.
"No Republican on that stage really, including you, really wanted to focus on those hard social moral issues," he said. Santorum objected that he hadn't been asked about the issues.
"I think I only got four or five questions," he said. "You never turned it to same-sex," Matthews replied. "You never turned it to don't ask don't tell."
"Nobody asked me!" Santorum said.
"Nobody wanted to bring them up, Senator!" Matthews shouted. "It seems like your party believes that you can't win this general election if you talk about same sex marriage."
"Wait a minute!" Santorum said, waving his arms. "Whoa! Your station didn't ask me!"
The best moment of the chat, though, came at the end. Matthews said that he was disappointed the debate hadn't touched on evolution, "because that always opens up a can of worms for your party." Santorum said that he would have liked to talk about it, and Matthews gleefully seized the moment.
"Do you believe in evolution?" he asked. "Do you believe in evolution? Do you believe in evolution? Do you believe in evolution?"
For the record Santorum said he believed in it in a tiny, "micro sense."
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