The most extreme religious fanatic in the Republican presidential race, Rick Santorum, is not going to back down on his crazed statement that John F. Kennedy makes him want to puke.

It’s hard to believe that this kind of hateful, childish ranting is going to get Santorum elected. But it might get him the nomination, because the base of the GOP has gone completely bug-eyed nuts.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who has made his conservative stance on religious and social issues one of the centerpieces of his Republican presidential campaign, today questioned the idea of a complete separation of church and state. Santorum stood by comments he made last year when he said after reading President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech about the separation of church and state, “I almost threw up.”

Santorum said his disagreement with Kennedy came from the line in Kennedy’s speech that read, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum said today on ABC’s “This Week.’’ “The idea that the church should have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical of the objectives and vision of our country.”

John F. Kennedy did not say anything like that in his speech, of course; Santorum is blatantly distorting the truth, and it’s working with the ignorant base.

But wait — now we discover that despite standing by his absurdly false characterization of JFK’s speech, Santorum regrets saying it made him want to hurl.

Rick Santorum regrets saying that he wanted to “throw up” in response to watching a video clip of President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech about the separation of church and state.

“I wish I had that particular line back,” Santorum said Tuesday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show.

That particular line may have been so offensive that even Rick Santorum understands he went too far, but the way he’s portraying JFK’s justly famous speech as an attack on religious people is even more offensive.