Dec 29, 2011: "I've defended my earmarks in the sense that I'm proud of the money that I did set aside for priorities in my state instead of having bureaucrats do that," Santorum said on Fox News. "The Constitution gives the power of the purse to the Congress."
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Feb 2009: Video of Rick Santorum defending earmarks on FOX News program in 2009 -- Juan Williams "pats Santorum on the back" (figuratively speaking) for "being proud" and taking responsibility for his record.
Santorum and Bachmann should drop out now.
Iowa does seem to have a strong evangelical streak.
That, could place Santorum, Bachmann or Perry in the running for Iowa.
That said, the evangelical thing will evaporate in NH but will re emerge in SC.
Can Santorumn survive NH?
Bachmann won’t make it out of Iowa.
For several weeks at least, Iowa evangelicals who supported Huckabee in 2008 have been trending toward Santorum. Iowa evangelicals seem to be able to support a Catholic like Santorum while evangelicals elsewhere might not.
Virtually every politician who has served for 12 years has voted stupidly on occasion. I do not have a problem with the tariff vote, myself, but the others were horrible votes. Caveat: I’m sure that the Bridge to Nowhere did not stand alone for a vote.
From what I have been reading about Iowa, I don’t think they know what they want, and they are pretty irrelevant anyway.;
They are making such a mess of this they should have their caucus last instead of first and save themselves the embarrassment.
I think that Rick Santorum is the most genuinely Christian of the whole bunch.
As for not moving the Bridge to Nowhere funds to NOLA, NOLA got larger federal subsidies than any other catastrophe I can think of, even though the damage was largely their fault.
And this: “Santorum was anything but a fiscal conservative, as Erick Erickson points out over at Red State. . . . He supported steel tariffs in Pennsylvania. . . .”
Well, I happen to think that if we had retained some of our tariffs—not high ones, but moderate—we wouldn’t have lost so damned many jobs overseas, and we wouldn’t be so dependent on foreign countries for vital products and supplies, including military supplies. It’s not as if it’s really free trade, since it is biased against us in almost every respect.
One-world “free” trade biased against us is conservative? Who knew?
Perry might drop out if he lands 5th, 6th or 7th.
Evangelicals are in a civil war in Iowa. If they could unite behind a candidate, they could defeat Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in the Iowa caucuses, but they can’t.
Bottom line is we have FOUR good conservatives (Newt, Perry, Michele, Santorum) splitting the votes amongst themselves versus one liberal (Willard) and one nutjob (Paul).
I'm among those who've wondered aloud why Bachmann hasn't attacked Romney the way she has all the conservatives. My sense is that she's been running to be Romney's VP.
I'm guessing she'll endorse Romney. Her "excuse" to her conservative supporters will be that "Mitt is most likely to win." or some other such nonsense.
I'm officially on record now saying that a vote for Bachmann is a wasted vote. I wish Perry and Santorum and Gingrich weren't splitting the vote in Iowa, but they are. Neither the Perry or Gingrich camp seem to believe they'll do better than 3-5 place.
We should deny Iowa to Romney and push Santorum. Iowans must know that a vote for Paul doesn't say "protest". It says "naive".
Have been keeping my powder dry since Cain's implosion.
If Santorum can finish ahead of Bachmann and Perry in Iowa, he will have my instant financial support.
Look to Bachmann to exit stage left after Iowa. The question becomes who will she endorse.
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She will endorse the only GOP candidate she has not attacked in this race; Mitt Romney. And that’s because, as Ed Rollins said, she thinks he’s going to be the eventual nominee and she wants to be his VP.
Expect to see Rick Perry start a media blitz against Rick Santorum, which, indeed, he has already begun,...
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ROFLMAO.... You have to laugh to keep from crying. The GOP is determined to pull defeat from the jaws of victory. We’re going to so beat, bloody and break every candidate we have until the eventual nominees crawls into the General Election wounded beyond recovery. Start practicing now saying “President Obama” for the next four years folks. WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.
If they truly thought Newt for example would get that done; then they would overlook his flaws for the greater good he could bring. Saving the country is the most important goal.
I don't see people voting for a Santorum or Bachmann just to make statement