Posted on 01/08/2012 10:41:37 AM PST by octapi
Rick Santorum's virtual tie in Iowa has propelled him into the national spotlight overnight.
Just three weeks ago, Santorum was polling in the low to middle single digits in Iowa. Many people questioned why he was even in the race. I thought that he was probably running for Vice President -- someone who could give Mitt Romney credibility with social conservatives.
Now that Santorum has emerged as the latest front-runner among the GOP Presidential contenders, it's time to take a close look at who Rick Santorum really is.
Santorum was born in 1958 in West Virginia. His parents were government employees who worked at a VA Hospital in neighboring Pennsylvania. After graduating from college with a Law Degree, Santorum went to work for the government as a legislative aide to a Pennsylvania State Senator. He later served on a Pennsylvania government transportation committee.
Santorum was elected to the House of Representatives in 1990. In 1994 he was elected to the Senate as part of the Gingrich revolution. In 1996, Santorum served as Chairman of the Republican Party Task Force on Welfare Reform and he helped steer that important piece of legislation through the Senate.
However, during the Bush the administration, Santorum helped lead the GOP away from their principles, by concocting all kinds of government spending programs designed to create new government dependent constituencies that would be loyal to the GOP.
Rick Santorum voted for the first new federal entitlement program since LBJ (Medicare Part D), the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history (the failed No Child Left Behind), the largest pork barrel infrastructure bill in history (including the infamous "bridge to nowhere"), thousands of earmarks, Bush's two ill-conceived wars in the Middle East, and much more. Santorum and his buddies turned a balance budget into huge deficits and set the stage for the Democrats to regain control of the Congress and White House.
Rick Santorum is the poster boy for everything that was wrong with the GOP during the Bush administration. As a result, he got booted out of office in 2006 along with the rest of the GOP Congress. He lost to a conservative Democrat by a whopping 59% to 41%.
During the 1980s, Ronald Reagan vetoed a transportation bill from a Democrat Congress because it contained 150 earmarks. During the Bush Administration, Santorum helped to Sheppard a transportation bill through a GOP Congress that contained over 1,000 earmarks (including the "bridge to nowhere"). Bush signed it. This alone should tell us all how much so-called "conservatives" like Santorum have veered off of the course set for us by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.
Santorum also endorsed liberal GOP Senator Arlen Specter over his conservative challenger Pat Toomey in 2004. Specter won the primary and the election. Thanks to Rick Santorum, Arlen Specter was around to cast the deciding vote for Obamacare in the Senate. In 2010, Specter switched to the Democrat Party and lost to his primary challenger. Pat Toomey won the Senate seat.
I've watched every GOP debate during this election cycle. One thing that really strikes me is that of all of the current GOP Presidential candidates, Rick Santorum seems to have learned the least from Bush's misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like Bush, Santorum seems to believe that the U.S. government can force a western civilization on a country like Afghanistan, where no reasonable civilization has ever existed before.
Earlier this week Rush Limbaugh was bellyaching about people questioning Santorum's conservative credentials. Limbaugh stated that "conservatives" actually do believe in big government -- just not the same kind of big government that liberals believe in. Oh really???
So sure, if our new definition of a "conservative" is someone who wants to conserve the growth of government over the last 80 years and the corrupt cronyism that it spawned, then Santorum is indeed a "conservative".
However, if our definition of a "conservative" is someone who wants to conserve the Constitution, limited government, the free market, and our individual liberty, then Santorum isn't even close to fitting the bill.
I hope and pray that the good people of New Hampshire take a hard look at Rick Santorum in the context of their state motto -- "Live Free or Die" -- and render their verdict accordingly.
His supporters are mental cases too.
After NH his numbers are going to go way down as well.
He is not really a mental case..he is just overly emotional..maybe bipolar mood disorder at the worst. Anyway..he just gets used. I hate it that he didn't go away but he got people to understand the economy. At this point he is only splitting the votes against the progressive pic (Romney). He needs to go bye-bye.
“The Tenth Amendment speaks of powers. Legitimate powers, of the national government, the state governments, and of the people.
None of the three have any legitimate power or jurisdiction to alienate the God-given, unalienable rights of any person. They never have and they never will.”
Excellent post.
No worker in the US should be held hostage to unions period, compulsory union dues are unconstitutional under the first and 14th amendments, and the unions need to be stripped of their ability to steal money from workers paychecks on a national level.
If the workers love unions so much they will be happy to voluntarily send them dues.
Government employee unions are blatantly illegal mechanisms for raping taxpayers by bribing leftist politicians with money and votes in exchange for unsustainable compensation and benefits.
Whats this lawyer with nothing better to do then run for POTUS “very good, very sincere explanation” for supporting this communist BS?
Watch the debate.
I’ll not pretend to speak for Santorum. He did so far better than I could.
He admitted that vote was one he’s caught a lot of flack about, but explained how he got to it, pretty well.
I’m just trying to point out, that at this moment in this election cycle, simply criticizing our own candidates (other than Mitt or RP) strengthens Romney.
That may not be what you’re intending to do, but that’s what the result is.
Focus.
Crikey, they just aren’t getting any smarter...
Bully for you and your attitude.
MY MO? ROTFLMYRomneyOFF.
I'm all in for Newt Gingrich, but I'll support Santorum or Perry, whomever stops Romney, so I'm not going to join any chorus tearing down any of the three.
I’m not a fortune teller, but I think he would try his level best to shrink the government, knowing full well congress holds the power of the purse.
Sanotrum is not my choice. I’m all in for Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich, Perry, or Santorum = all three much better than Romney. NO ROMNEY.
Yes, I know all that. I am not here to defend Santorum votes.
I’m all in for Newt Gingrich, but Santorum and Perry are a whole lot better than Romney and that’s my point.
We need one of them to stop Romney. I am willing to support the one who manages to stop Romney.
Beautiful work, TOL!
now THAT.......... is a good argument...
Now that Santorum has emerged as the latest front-runner among the GOP Presidential contenders, it's time to take a close look at who Rick Santorum really is.
Just two days ago, you weren't a member of FR. Two days later and you're again not a member of FR. Time to
!!REJOICE!!
This trolling is only gonna get worse........
ZOT! ZOT! ZOT! ZOT! ZOT!.....
Until the election, yes. Ten full months of idiots infesting the site. Sigh...
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