One of the greatest speeches about personal liberty and religious freedom in America, used as a benchmark whenever a presidential candidate needs to clarify his or her own religious views, makes Rick Santorum “want to throw up.” This is another shameful episode in Rick Santorum’s political career, and one worth understanding better.

It’s not only that John Kennedy is an icon for Democrats, although he is. It’s not simply that JFK is America’s first and only Catholic president, although he is. It’s not that this speech is almost universally recognized as a breakthrough, addressed as it was to a group of Dallas, Texas, Baptists.

I mean, imagine Rick Santorum addressing the Human Rights Campaign and you’ll get a sense of the difficulty John Kennedy faced. Or George W Bush addressing the NAACP.

But not since this moment in American history has another candidate for President even gone into the belly of the beast to face and address his critics so directly as John Kennedy did in September 1960. This was bravery. This was confrontation. This was no apologia; this was as in-your-face a moment as 20th century politics saw.

And not only did Rick Santorum insult the memory of our martyred president, he also completely mischaracterized the letter and spirit of the speech. Here’s how Rick hears JFK:

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up. What kind of country do we live in where only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up. And that should make every American [throw up],” Santorum said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Of course, that’s not what Kennedy said. And it’s certainly not what he meant. He never said that people of faith have no role in the public square. In fact, he said exactly the opposite! That all people of faith have a role in the public square, that every person, regardless of faith or non-faith, can come into the public square and make their case in America.

“I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish — where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source — where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials — and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.”

I can only conclude that Rick Santorum likes to throw up. He lies about the speech John Kennedy made. And then he claims he’d throw up over it, and so would we all. Choosing to defame such a historically resonant speech, by lying about it, really tells you all you need to know about Rick Santorum and today’s Republican Party.

That Rick Santorum could become the GOP front-runner is really shocking to me. His lies about what John Kennedy said about religion in America’s public square completely disqualify him from the presidency, if he were not already utterly disqualified.

You know what makes me want to throw up? Rick Santorum, that’s what.