Santorum said what?
SCHULTZ: All right. You be the judge if this is radical. Rick Santorum 's radical views have largely flown under the radar screen because he's been really low standings in the polls until now. And now that he's taken the lead in several national polls, you know his extremist views are getting more attention. Now, last night out in the middle of the country of all places good old Fargo , north Dakota , he told a crowd that he wants to, listen up, he wants to completely gut public education .
SANTORUM: Get rid of all of the federal money that goes to primary and secondary education . Not just get the federal government out but let's get the state government out and get it back into the local communities and to the parents.
SCHULTZ: And they want the teachers to work for free in Fargo now, is that what it is? Cutting off funds to education. Let me tell you something folks, it's just of the tip of the iceberg . Here are more examples of Santorum 's radical views. States should have the right to outlaw contraception. He is right in the middle of that argument. Radical feminists, get this one, dope women in to thinking that they had to pursue careers. Women should not serve in combat roles in the military because emotions will get in the way. It's better for children to have a parent in prison than to have gay parents. Of course, there's Santorum 's famous comparison of homosexuality and bestiality. And it seems, like he can't wait to bomb Iran . The Barry Goldwater , I think,, was famous for his doom's day rhetoric. And I 'm kind of hearing the same stuff coming out of Rick Santorum 's mouth. I mean, I get the feeling that he knows where the nuke button is and he's pretty reckless and can't wait to get to it. And one more thing about Santorum . He talks a good game about made in America but his tax returns from 2008 showed that he was driving a German made Audi a6 . Not real good for Mr. American manufacturing. I wonder what 2012 presidential candidate Santorum would say about that?
SANTORUM: Elite snobs.
SCHULTZ: Elite snobs? Joining me now is MSNBC contributor E.J. Dionne , senior fellow at the Brookings institution and columnist for "the Washington Post ," and may I also say a professor and I've been in your classroom at Georgetown . And I know you care about education so I'm just going to throw this out to you, E.J. What would America be like if we cut all funding on a federal and state level to public education ?
E.J. DIONNE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: First of all, let me say this Chevy Malibu driver is happy to be with you .
SCHULTZ: Good for you . I've got a Silverado at home.
DIONNE: You know, when Arianna Jones , your booking producer, called me and read me that quote, I couldn't believe it was what he said. I asked her, Arianna , are you sure? She actually sent me the text of the quote. Because what's really amazing is it's not just that he's proposing cutting federal education aid which has been with us in some form since World War II but has really been part of our life and helping schools especially poor kids since the '60s. But when he says get it out of the state government . I mean my word. We use the state governments to try to arrange at least a little bit of equality between school districts . A little more equality. I mean, we live out in Bethesda , Maryland , which is an affluent community. We moved there because the public schools are great. Some of my state tax money goes to help inner city schools in Baltimore and a lot of rural districts around Maryland because those kids deserve a good education too. And I was just astonished he said that.
SCHULTZ: I tell you what, it's amazing. This is a guy who home schools his kids, OK, and this is a guy that has no problem with the defunding of public education where teachers in his home state of Pennsylvania have voted to work for nothing and they have gotten a big scrap with the governor right now about getting funds to run it. You know, I want to play a sound bite of Rick Santorum yesterday in North Dakota talking about Iran .
SANTORUM: Right now the big issue of the day is Iran . The development of a nuclear weapon and let me assure you they do not respect us. They are promoting terror all over the world . There are plans here in the United States that Iran is planning to do terrorist attacks here and what does the president do? He appeases. This is a fundamental threat to your security. No one is safe. No one is safe from asymmetric threats, terrorism. And that's what Iran is all about unless we stop them from getting that nuclear weapon .
SCHULTZ: We should point out factually that the stated position of the president of the United States is that he will not allow Iran to have a nuclear bomb . But, I guess, we have got to have all of this testosterone on the Republican trail for campaigning. Is he building an argument for bombing that country ?
DIONNE: I think that's what he's trying to do. But when you put together and by the way, somewhere in there he said President Obama called Iran a tiny country and in fact the actual quote from President Obama which was before he was president was that it was tiny compared to the soviet union. It was a very different quote than the one that I understand he said. But I think the problem Santorum is creating for himself with all of those quotes you had on social issues at the beginning and with some of this rhetoric, is if he blows this lead he has in Michigan to Romney , one of the reasons is that women voters are abandoning him. Now, obviously, women who vote in Republican primaries are not liberal. But there are moderate and moderately conservative women who don't like that rhetoric at all and I think that's something he should be careful about and the schools quote will also affect those voters.
SCHULTZ: E.J. Dionne . Thanks so much. This was a good day for Romney is what you're saying because that kind of out of the main street rhetoric could actually help a guy like Mitt Romney so there's a real tussle with Republicans on which way to go on that. Thank you, E.J. Appreciate your time.
