Two Hearts Bleed As One

There goes the sub-Saharan neighborhood. Bono is teaming up with Rick Santorum. Yes, that Rick Santorum. NewsMax tells all:

On Sunday, October 16, a truly unique political event will take place.

Teaming up with the legendary rock group U2 for a one-night only appearance will be Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.).

The thousand-dollar-a-seat concert has been put together by Sean and Ana Wolfington and will take place at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia in support of Santorum’s re-election, reports NewsMax’s James Hirsen.

U2 front man Bono is no stranger to Washington, D.C. He has come often to the nation’s capital to network with politicians on behalf of his many causes.

You can forget about that Nobel now, boyo. And just when we thought quality time with Jesse Helms was a one-off. I mean, why not make it a hat trick at this point? An “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” mic-swinging duet with Brownback, perchance to dream?’

CapitolBuzz shows how this current partnership might make for some awkward backstage chitchat…

More after the jump.

UPDATE: Whoops. The NewsMax story is bogus (and has been for hours now — my bad!), according to Bono’s camp and, erm, The Corner. Anyway, it’s not the archconservatism of the senator that spooked the U2 frontman into having a conscience; it’s what Santorum really means . So read the rest as an Onion-esque shoulda been. Worked so hard on that heart graphic, too.

On page 14 of his tome [It Takes a Family], Santorum writes that liberals define freedom as “without limits (with the obligatory caveat that you can’t hurt anyone else directly). But someone always gets hurt when masses of indiviudals do what is only in their self-interest. That is the great lie of liberal freedom, or as I like to say, ‘No-Fault Freedom’ (all of the choice, none of the responsiblity). When I listen to the rock group U2’s latest hit ‘Vertigo,’ which criticixes the dizzying culture surrounding us, a chill goes through me when I hear Bono sing, in a satanic voice, ‘All of this, all of this can be yours — just give me what I want and no one gets hurt.’

Santorum continues: “No one gets hurt? Believers in No-Fault Freedom turn a blind eye to the damage such a notion of freedom causes not to this or that individual but to society as a whole.”

On pages 264 and 265, Santorum writes: “The world liberals see is one in which each of us is an island entire unto ourselves, supported by the village elders, doing what pleases us, as the U2 song says, ‘as long as nobody gets hurt.’ Except that everybody gets hurt.”

Everybody not as much as The Edge. He knew this “Yoko” moment would come, but like this, like, like… him? No, he doesn’t want to hear a soulful impromptu rendition of “One” this time. It’s finished. —MICHAEL WEISS

READ MORE: bono, conservatives, nobel peace prize, rick santorum, u2