Last night's tragicomic GOP debate crowd YouTube moment, aside from every time Rick Perry got the mic in the second half, involved a gay soldier asking about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal and getting loud boos from a handful of cretins in the audience.

Gay-hating person Rick Santorum fielded the question, and instead of opening with "I thank you for your service" as usual, he said that no sexual activity should be allowed in the military and that gays have been give a "special privelege." Yikes! Well, he'd like to rephrase that, now.

Fox News' Megyn Kelly, one of several moderators last night (and a pretty good one to boot!), followed up with Santorum on her program today. From ThinkProgress:

SANTORUM: I condemn the people who booed that gay soldier. That soldier is serving our country. I thank him for his service to our country. I'm sure he's doing an excellent job. I hope he's safe and I hope he returns safely and does his mission well.

I have to admit, I seriously did not hear those boos. Had I heard them, I certainly would have commented on them, but, as you know, when you're in that sort of environment, you're sort of focused on the question and formulating your answer. I just didn't hear those couple of boos that were out there, but certainly had I, I would have said "Don't do that. This man is serving our country and we are to thank him for his service."

Maybe you can buy Santorum's excuse that he was so focused on answering the question that the boos didn't really register. But it's much harder to believe that he "certainly would have commented on them" if he had heard them. What do you think this is? He's the closest thing this field has to a George W. Bush Republican, and his minuscule chances of winning the nomination rest on uniting the frightened anti-gay social conservatives and foreign policy neoconservatives who've begun, in comically desperate fashion, to give Santorum a second look. Hating on gay soldiers for undermining the military is his best last option! And he executed, in perfectly shameless fashion.