Rick Santorum: Blah People (Black People)

Did you see the news item about Rick (Don't Google Me!) Santorum? He was overgeneralizing about poor people the other day, and he said "black people." Actually, he said something like "blaque. . ." people, with a very slightly garbled last consonant. Clearly, in context, he was saying black,  but thought better of it just a little too late. Santorum then scummily tried to walk it back by saying he started to say a different word (what, blank? bland? blanket?) and mangled whatever it was supposed to be. But it certainly wasn't "black!" Yeah, and he never said gay relationships were like "man on dog sex" either, right?