The best argument in favor from a reader:
I've never seen anybody mention the fact that Santorum's children, who didn't choose their father, share his last name and are now stuck with the repulsive second meaning through no fault of their own.
But another makes a powerful point:
It seems to me that one of the major components of bullying, cyber or not, is absent from Santorum's narrative: the disproportion of power between the bully and the bullied. Rick Santorum is not a kid being harassed by his social peers; he is a major political figure being hassled by those with far less clout and power than he has and is seeking to gain. This does not mean that I condone the way that people have gone after him online, but there seems to me to be a pretty clear difference between this behavior and classic cyber-bullying.
The Dish 