To be added or removed from the Viking Kitty/ZOT Ping List, FReepmail Darkwing104 or 50mm.
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.
Troll... Rick Santorum would be a GREAT POTUS/VPOTUS. I’m going RP/RS as the tiket.
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.
The views you espouse, which demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of the Tenth Amendment, and ignorance concerning natural rights, have been propagated widely by Ron Paul. It's a deadly disease in the body politic, quite frankly.
This republic was premised on an understanding of the self-evident truths concerning the natural equal rights of the people.
You probably don't realize it, but by following Ron Paul on these things, you're helping to destroy those foundations.
The irony of your post is that the mark of totalitarianism is that they have no respect whatsoever for the God-given, unalienable equal rights of the individual.
Those are completely indefensible and unacceptable actions.
He is also a lawyer.
He is done after New Hampshire.
So a country which forbids murder in every state is a totalitarian country, since it would not allow any state to legally murder people?
I am not a Paul supporter, the guy looks to me like he is one step ahead of the guys with the butterfly nets and a straight jacket.
On Iran getting a nuke, it’s a non-issue, it’s too late, the Taliban already have nukes via their puppet government in Pakistan, not sure how Iran getting their own is going to make that situation any worse.
All of this saber rattling about Irans nuke is just the military industrial complexes way off staving off big cuts to the defense budget.
Pakistan is a nuclear power and Taliban insurgents were within 60 miles of the capital and seizing control in 2009.
They had to back off because we were still a heavy presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and sent that degenerate Hillary Clinton over to tell the government to make pretend they were fighting back.
OBL was living in the Pakistani equivalent of West Point.
Pretty soon the charade will be over, and AlQueda will take direct control of all of the Pakistani nukes.
Iran is not going to do anything to challenge the US navy, its all propaganda
To be added or removed from the Viking Kitty/ZOT Ping List, FReepmail Darkwing104 or 50mm.
Thank you.
Hi Onyx. Happy new year!
Hi5!
Santorum had a very good, very sincere explanation for the “right to work” vote in the debate yesterday.
Guessing you missed it, since you were busy finding anti-Santorum talking points to post for today.
BRAVO!!!!! Great post
BTTT
Trust me..I’m hard pressed to go with the Romans..but it’s freedom baby. Freedom is freedom. Freedom for you, freedom for me, freedom for them. Don’t eat my freedom.
Thanks to both of you.
The extreme irony is that if you think Ron Paul’s pro-choice for states views all the way through to their logical conclusions, you discover that Paul is a statist, by definition: One who puts the “rights” of the state ahead of the rights of the individual or the people.
Why do I get the feeling you are the same person who posted this thread?! make a new account to throw crap...
Please check the IP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.