I think you could be moderately pro-life and have difficulty supporting a candidate, like Specter, who "believed that anti-abortion activists were a “fringe” group hijacking the Republican party."
Appearances being what they are, it seems politics and party are what is most important to Santorum.
Gingrich had no trouble endorsing Dede Scozzafosa, who was a pro-abortion advocate. And that wasn’t in 1996, it was in 2009, against a solid conservative, not against Bob Dole.
Of course, more than a few pro-lifers here at Free Republic had no trouble enthusiastically supportting Scott Brown for Senator either, even though he was pro-abortion.
And of course, Specter had no chance of winning the nomination in 1996. And Bob Dole, who was nominally pro-life, fought to water down the abortion platform plank, saying we should embrace pro-abortion republicans. And before the primary season started, he stopped supporting an abortion ban: “Senator Bob Dole’s statement on Sunday that he would no longer support an unconditional ban on abortion prompted a wave of anger today from the Republican right and escalated an already fierce ideological war in the party.”
Santorum was wrong to endorse Specter, both in 1995 for a hopeless presidential run, and in 2004, although that’s easier seen in retrospect. But applying a 2011 sensibility to decisions made in 1996 seems pointless — I mean, what is the actual argument here?
It can’t be that Santorum secretly is pro-abortion — he is the strongest pro-life candidate we have. It can’t be that we are worried he’ll appoint pro-abortion judges, or have pro-abortion positions, that would be absurd.
It can’t even be that, as President, he’ll somehow use his position to endorse people we wouldn’t support, because the reason for his endorsement of Specter in both cases is clearly a unique situation, where he was politically beholden, and returned a political favor, which in 1995 was meaningless as Specter was never going to win the presidency.
Senator DeMint actually endorsed Romney in 2008, so it is clear that good men make bad decisions (Gingrich-Scozzafoza, Palin-McCain, O’Donnell/Ayotte/Haley-Romney, and Perry-Giuliani are more examples).
So I think many of us have problems with this line of attack not for the actual charge (as I said, I think he made a mistake in both cases), but because of the unspoken false implications of the charge.