Oh, Rick. You were supposed to be the lone holdout. All of those other far-right Republicans swallowed hard and endorsed John McCain, but not Rick Santorum. You wouldn’t even consider it. No sirree bob.
You called the prospects of a McCain presidency “very dangerous.” Just last month, even after McCain had wrapped up the nomination, you still said there was just no way you could support the guy. “The only one I wouldn’t support is McCain,” you said. You even said he lacked the “temperament and leadership ability to move the country in the right direction.”
And today, those strong-willed principles suddenly mattered a little less.
Those conservatives who still question whether they can support McCain should remember this: The next president will make more than 2,700 political appointments, those who really set policy, across the bureaucracy of our government. I, for one, will sleep better at 3 a.m. if Republicans are in the cabinet and in White House positions that make so many critical decisions. The idea of “Attorney General John Edwards” and “Energy Secretary Al Gore” should cause some sleepless nights for Republicans or conservatives - and those in a U.S. manufacturing sector now struggling to stay afloat.
Here’s my final argument for John McCain. He’s not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
A year ago at this time, Rick Santorum was a two-term senator and possible presidential candidate. Yesterday, he was at Penn State as a guest of David Horowitz, as part of the absurd “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.”
Of course, Santorum’s presence wasn’t the real problem; what the former Republican senator had to say was the troublesome part. (thanks to reader R.S. for the tip)
While Christianity presents a humble, meek message emphasizing love, he said, Islam stemmed from the strong rule of the prophet Mohammed. “Every aspect of life was ruled.”
“Islam, unlike Christianity, is an all-encompassing ideology,” said Santorum, a Penn State alumnus. “It is not just something you do on Sunday…. We (as Americans) don’t get that.”
Islam is an “all-encompassing ideology”? And Christianity isn’t? This from Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum? Indeed, the former senator seemed to imply that Christianity is “just something you do on Sunday,” whereas Islam is a faith tradition that believers carry throughout the week.
I wonder if Santorum realizes how ridiculous this sounds coming from him. For that matter, I wonder whether Santorum’s religious right buddies agree that Christianity is not “all-encompassing.”
“I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to speak at three of Pennsylvania’s great universities. While the sounds of opposition to the war are heard frequently on our college campuses, I plan to offer a perspective our students rarely hear - my views on who our true enemies are, what they believe, and why it is so important to defeat them,” said Santorum.
“Rick Santorum has been the most courageous and outspoken public figure in America alerting all of us to the true nature of the enemy we face,” said David Horowitz, founder of the Freedom Center, and organizer of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” which includes events at over 100 schools across America.
Fascism is not even a very good description of the ideology of most Muslim fundamentalists. Most fascism in the Middle East has been secular in character, as with Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Fascism involves extreme nationalism and most often racism. Muslim fundamentalist movements reject the nation-state as their primary loyalty and reject race as a basis for political action or social discrimination. Fascists exalt the state above individual rights or the rule of law. Muslim fundamentalists exalt Islamic law above the utilitarian interests of the state. Fascism exalts youth and a master race above the old and the “inferior” races. Muslim fundamentalists would never speak this way.
The last time we saw former Sen. Rick Santorum (R), his 16-year congressional career was coming to an abrupt and embarrassing end. Bob Casey Jr. beat him statewide by 18 points, 59% to 41%, giving the conservative more time to work with Fox News, and work on Hollywood movie projects.
It appears, however, that the politician who made the “man on dog” comparison famous isn’t quite done with public service. Santorum was expected to run for president in 2008, though an embarrassing defeat made that impossible, but now he’s eyeing a gubernatorial race in 2010.
Say it slowly: Gov. Rick Santorum. Interesting concept, isn’t it?
The former Pennsylvania GOP senator, trounced in his re-election bid last year by seldom-seen Democrat Bob Casey Jr., apparently has grown weary of beating the drums about the ongoing terrorist threat as a senior fellow with the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The American Spectator reported last week that Santorum is seriously mulling a run for governor in 2010, when the race will be wide open. Term limits will force current Gov. Ed Rendell from seeking a third term.
Said one unnamed political adviser in The Spectator item: “Rick is a politician. He loves the competition and the process of running. He’s getting back in and he’s young enough that a gubernatorial run would set him up for greater opportunities politically down the road.”
He’s like a character in a bad horror movie that just won’t go away.
About a month ago, Dennis Milligan, the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, sounded pretty excited about the prospect of domestic terrorism. Yesterday, Rick Santorum echoed a similar sentiment on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show.
Santorum went on to clearly imply that terror attacks will occur inside America which will alter the body politic and lead to a reversal of the anti-war sentiment now dominating the country.
“Between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public’s going to have a very different view of this war, and it will be because, I think, of some unfortunate events, that like we’re seeing unfold in the UK. But I think the American public’s going to have a very different view,” said the former senator from Pennsylvania.
If your household is anything like mine, you sometimes check what’s playing at the local movie theater and ask, “Why aren’t there more movies being made by Rick Santorum?”
Rick Santorum is in early talks on a movie project with Hollywood producer Stephen McEveety.
Rumors have been buzzing throughout Harrisburg that Santorum was connecting with McEveety, who produced Mel Gibson blockbusters such as “Braveheart,” “The Passion of the Christ” and “We Were Soldiers,” on a project.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review added that Santorum’s movie will follow “three Iranian brothers who take disparate paths in their lives, including one who becomes a terrorist.” I’m sure it’s going to be a movie that’s fun for the whole family.
Last night Jon Stewart and the Daily Show team put together a touching farewell to the outgoing 109th do-nothing-Congress. The "where are they now?" part at the end is classic. Good riddance to Rick "Man-on-Dog" Santorum, George "Macaca" Allen, Conrad "Secret Iraq Plan" Burns and Katherine "Church and State Fallacy" Harris just to name a few.
A post-election e-mail to executives at the drug company GlaxoSmithKline details just how tough. "We now have fewer allies in the Senate," says the internal memo, obtained by The Washington Post. "Thus, there is greater risk over the next two years that bad amendments will be offered to pending legislation." The company's primary concerns are bills that would allow more imported drugs and would force price competition for drugs bought under Medicare.
The defeat of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) "creates a big hole we will need to fill," the e-mail says. Sen.-elect Jon Tester (D-Mont.) "is expected to be a problem," it says, and the elevation to the Senate of Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) "will strengthen his ability to challenge us. Read on…
I meant to get to this sooner. Hugh Hewitt's meltdown is complete and somebody better call an ambulance and fast:
President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available. GOP senators will have the chance to select leadership equal to the new world of politics which, as the past two years have demonstrated, does not reward timidity.
He wants "Man on Dog" sitting on the bench after being thoroughly trashed by Bob Casey, Jr. I mean, this is special. This is the type of spectacular hackery I expected from the Cowardly Lion. For laughs, read some of the comments…
To his credit, Santorum was very gracious. Bill Bennett was saying on CNN before that this will not be the end of his poltical career, suggesting we might see him on the 08 presidential ticket. Until then, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Rick.
A few days ago, Rick Santorum tried to draw a parallel between J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the Iraq War, saying that America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been drawn to Iraq instead. Out of fear that some people didn't understand it, Stephen breaks it down step by step.
FOX News reported on the most recent debate between Santorum and Casey which got pretty heated Friday afternoon. But the most interesting part of the segment was the final few seconds. It looks like the GOP is writing off little Ricky.
Cameron: The Republican party may be signaling it's own doubts about its incumbent. The RNC and the National Republican Senatorial committee have made no plans to buy ads on Mr. Santorum's behalf in the final three and a half weeks of this race. Perhaps suggesting that they have begun losing confidence in whether or not their number three leader in the GOP can actually hang on to the seat, Jim.
Let's flag this for the "Desperate But Clueless" file
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) - who has been one of the most strident abortion opponents and who wrote in his book, "It Takes a Family," that "radical feminism" has led women to work outside the home and thus "undermin[e] the traditional family" and that education is the "wrong" way for "poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs [to] move up the economic ladder" - is facing a deficit among women in polls on his re-election bid. Now, reports the conservative New York Sun, an independent-expenditure ("527") group called Softer Voices is lending a hand with ads designed to soften the senator's image and help him appeal to women voters.
The founder of Softer Voices, Lisa Schiffren, may not have the best track record. According to the Sun, the former speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle is "best known" for writing Quayle's 1992 speech attacking the television character "Murphy Brown," an unmarried (and fictional) professional who, as the speech said, was "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone." The ads highlight Santorum's role in pushing welfare reform in the mid-1990s - which he saw as directed towards getting single mothers back to work. Read on…
Kos: As I’ve mentioned before, this is a Bill Hillsman ad. He’s been shut out of DC circles for ever by the Beltway Mafia. I suspect, however, that things will change next cycle.
Following up on yesterday’s item about the Santorum-Casey debate, it’s also worth taking a moment to consider how embarrassingly wrong Santorum is about WMD in Iraq.
"[W]e have found weapons of mass destruction, they were older weapons, but we have found chemical weapons. The report was just released not too long ago that, that said that there were over 500 chemical weapons found in Iraq."
Santorum realizes his WMD claims were thoroughly debunked a few months ago, doesn’t he?
The only mystery here is the one that leads Santorum to believe he still has credibility on the issue.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Santorum, another social issue. The Federal Drug Administration has said that Plan B, the morning-after pill, can be sold over the counter to Americans 18 and older. Many in the right-to-life community have called that pill an abortifacient. Are you in favor of the FDA decision to sell the morning-after pill?
SANTORUM: He says the science is clear and it is clear. In fact, it is an abortifacient in certain circumstances. If the, if the egg has been fertilized and, and the, and the pill is taken, it does cause an abortion. It’s inconsistent with his previous position. It’s a classic attempt of him, how in a general election, to try and middle and, and, and violate his principles. And I think his father would be very upset if, if he were alive today and, and heard him be supportive of something like this.
We learned on Tuesday that Carl Romanelli, the Green Party candidate running in the Rick Santorum/Bob Casey Senate race in Pennsylvania, acknowledged that Republican contributors "probably supplied most" of his campaign’s financial support. As it turns out, that was an understatement.
Paul Kiel discovered yesterday that "every single contributor to the Pennsylvania Green Party Senate candidate is actually a conservative — except for the candidate himself."
Indeed, one of Romanelli’s more generous contributions came from a Halliburton lobbyist. The only non-Republican donation Romanelli received was a $30 contribution that Romanelli gave himself. (The guy is only willing to chip in 30 bucks for his own campaign?)
These schemes — conservatives help Greens to hurt Dems — isn’t new, and plenty of Greens don’t like it. Peter Camejo, Nader’s running mate in 2004, said he believed in returning the money sent to the campaign from conservatives who wanted to exploit an ideological opportunity. "[I]f your purpose [for contributing] is because you think this is going to have an electoral effect, we don’t want that money," Camejo said. "I take no money from people who disagree with us. We’re not interested in that." As it turned out, Nader disagreed with Camejo’s beliefs and wanted the money anyway, but at a minimum, Camejo’s position is ideologically consistent.
But for guys like Romanelli, it’s absurd. The GOP wants to use him as a tool, split the left, and help keep Santorum, one of the Senate’s most conservative members, in office for another six years. In response, Romanelli, the alleged champion of progressive ideals, essentially responds, "Sounds good to me."
Oh, Rick. You were supposed to be the lone holdout. All of those other far-right Republicans swallowed hard and endorsed John McCain, but not Rick Santorum. You wouldn’t even consider it. No sirree bob. 
A year ago at this time, Rick Santorum was a two-term senator and possible presidential candidate. Yesterday, he was at Penn State as a guest of David Horowitz, as part of the absurd “
The last time we saw former Sen. Rick Santorum (R), his 16-year congressional career was coming to an abrupt and embarrassing end. Bob Casey Jr. beat him statewide 
If your household is anything like mine, you sometimes check what’s playing at the local movie theater and ask, “Why aren’t there more movies being made by Rick Santorum?”
Last night Jon Stewart and the Daily Show team put together a touching farewell to the outgoing 109th do-nothing-Congress. The "where are they now?" part at the end is classic. Good riddance to Rick 
A post-election e-mail to executives at the drug company GlaxoSmithKline details just how tough. "We now have fewer allies in the Senate," says the internal memo, obtained by The Washington Post. "Thus, there is greater risk over the next two years that bad amendments will be offered to pending legislation." The company's primary concerns are bills that would allow more imported drugs and would force price competition for drugs bought under Medicare.
I meant to get to this sooner. Hugh Hewitt's meltdown is complete and somebody better call an 
Atrios points out that Santorum plays the 