Exactly what makes Santorum a conservative, other than his stance on abortion and gay marriage? Certainly not his voting record.
And what has he done to advance the conservative cause. What are his accomplishments? Gingrich has done more to advance conservatism than Santorum could ever dream of. Newis so clearly the best choice for so many reasons.
Organizations that rate politicians based on their records seem to think Santorum was pretty conservative. I trust them probably a little more than pro-Newt people posting random lists of votes (at least two of which have been proven to be opposite of what they said), with no context about the overall bills or what the specific bill actually did or did not do.
the ACU gave Santorum a lifetime 88.1 rating (c.f. Gingrich 90.0 lifetime). Santorum 2005 rating was 92.
OnTheIssues ranks Santorum a 90/0 hard core conservative (c.f. Gingrich 90/20 hard core conservative).
NRA gave Santorum an A+ rating (c.f. Gingrich A)
NRL 100%; NARAL 0%
Concerned Women for America : 100%
Americans for Tax Reform : 95%
U.S. Chamber of Commerce : 100%
American Security Council : 100%
American Coalition for Ethanol : 0%
Arab American Institution : 0%
ACLU : 17%
Human Rights Campaign : 0%
League of Private Property Voters : 89%
American Wilderness Coalition : 0%
Republicans for Environmental Protection : 0%
League of Conservation Voters : 10%
American Bar Association : 0%
His record has some real duds, as it were. But on the whole, he has pleased most of the groups we want him to please, and has outraged the groups we want to be outraged.