Posted on 04/15/2004 5:30:21 PM PDT by Ogie Oglethorpe
April 15, 2004, 8:38 a.m. Santorum’s Shame Say it ain’t so, Rick.
No one can question Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's free-market and pro-growth credentials. Santorum has been ranked as one of the most fiscally conservative Republicans in the Senate by groups like the National Taxpayers Union. He has led the fight for tax cuts and smaller government. And pro-growth contributors, for their part, did a lot of heavy lifting to help get Santorum into the Senate in the first place and into the leadership position he now holds. It was an investment that has paid off in spades.
That is why Santorum's recent interventions on behalf of Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Republican primary are so bewildering. Specter is now locked in a razor-tight race against conservative three-term congressman Pat Toomey. Toomey's voting record, especially on economic-growth issues, is very similar to Santorum's and is as impressive as Specter's is dreadful. Specter was one of only three Republicans who tried to eviscerate the Bush tax cut; he was the only Republican in the Senate to vote against the Washington, D.C. school-voucher bill; and he was ranked by the Citizens Against Government Waste as the "Pork Spender of the Year."
Specter often admits his left-wing tilt. Here is how he described his own political persuasion in a recent New Yorker article: "When I came to the Senate, we had a lot of members of the 'Wednesday Club' — a weekly gathering of Republican moderates. You had Lowell Weicker, you had Bob Stafford, you had Bob Packwood, you had Mark Hatfield, you had Lincoln Chafee, you had John Danforth, you had Jim Jeffords, you had John Heinz. Now there are only a few of us."
Specter freely admits that he shares the ideology of Jim Jeffords and Lowell Weicker.
Rick Santorum is obligated to publicly back the incumbent Specter. Santorum believes, probably rightly, that he would not be senator today without Specter's help. In a city where loyalty is notoriously a scarce commodity, Santorum can be commended for not his public pledges of support.
But Santorum is actively working to undermine Pat Toomey's candidacy. He has discouraged donors from contributing to Toomey. He has cut TV ads for Specter that portray the senior liberal senator as a friend of the taxpayer. He has staff people in Pennsylvania actively campaigning against Toomey.
Worst of all, Rick Santorum is running around Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., perpetuating the myth that Pat Toomey is "too conservative to win in Pennsylvania." This is precisely what liberals said about Rick Santorum when he ran for the Senate back in 1994. Santorum proved that wrong. So did Ronald Reagan, when he won Pennsylvania with a fairly right-wing message in 1980 and 1984. Pennsylvania is the signature state of the Reagan Democrat voter. These are middle-class, often unionized, blue-collar voters who are pro-life, pro-gun, and anti-tax.
Pat Toomey has a demonstrated record of winning Reagan Democrat voters. Toomey represents Allentown, Pa. Allentown is the steel city that Billy Joel immortalized in song about an economically depressed area where out-of-work unionized steel workers are "filling in forms, standing in lines." Toomey wins the district where few other Republicans prevail. And he wins with a voting record that is for free trade, private accounts for Social Security, and lean budgets — with no pork. (In fact, Specter is running as the man who brings home the bacon, and attacks Toomey for his unwillingness to vote for budget busters that have caused the federal deficit to soar into the stratosphere.)
Despite this principled free-market position on issues and his unwillingness to chase pork spending, Toomey won the district even George Bush lost it in 2000.
This contention that Republican candidates lose when they position themselves to the right and when they run on pro-economic growth issues, rather than away from them, is plain wrong. When Republicans run on principles, they win. Santorum sounds like the Reagan skeptics of the 1970s: He's way too right wing to ever win the presidency. How many times does the conservative movement have to disprove this fallacy?
Pennsylvania is a key battleground state for President Bush. The Bush team and Santorum want Specter on the ticket. But our polls indicate that Specter on the ticket may very well hurt Bush in Pennsylvania, not help him. Toomey will turn out hundreds of thousands of conservative voters, whereas Specter will turn them away.
Santorum's attacks against the Toomey campaign are especially unwarranted because many of the thousands of people who have contributed to Toomey's campaign are the same donors who helped Santorum become a Senator himself. I have talked with many Club for Growth donors who are none too pleased that Santorum is now actively campaigning against the Toomey challenge to a RINO Republican. Needless to say, through his actions, Santorum is risking alienating his own donor base — which he will have to tap into two years from now as he seeks reelection.
Pat Toomey, as National Review put it so concisely on its cover a few weeks ago, is "the right choice." Rick Santorum, of all people, should recognize that. My worry is that if Santorum keeps up his open warfare against Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania may not only lose the chance to have two conservative senators, we may lose the chance to have any.
— Stephen Moore is president of the Club for Growth.
My philosophy is quite simple and on display at FR for many years. When you vote for a candidate based on his promises, that candidate gives you an implicit handshake to folow through on those promises that he made. Santorums record is stellar in that regard. He owes you nothing else. Who he supports or doesn't support is none of your damn business.
As for personal political debts on this forum or any other kind of debts I have none. I'm my own man and always have been. I live my life the conservative way. I depend on nobody but myself. Got it?
Would you undermine or seek to destroy someone on this forum to repay a political debt?
Yeah, you.
Wrong. If the public official offered only private support you might be correct. But since, as in this case, Santorum's support of Specter is a public endorsement, made for the purpose of garnishing more votes and public support for Specter, (influence which Santorum was only able to achieve because of our votes and public support), it is our business.
Oh, well...just as I thought..jwalsh07 is a person who cannot be trusted.
P.S. And you are a COWARD as well.
You're like a damned gimmee girl. You think that people OWE you. Santorum owes you nothing but to keep his promises made during his campaign. Get out of the political welfare line and go to work electing your guy.
Oh, well...just as I thought..jwalsh07 is a person who cannot be trusted.
Well not exactly. I can be trusted to make fools of losers, whiners and gimmee girls here at FR.
P.S. And you are a COWARD as well.
Easy for you to say from a keyboard in whatever "village" it takes that breeds gimmee girls.
Never said I wasn't going to vote for him. I said I was disturbed and disappointed. When it comes to principles, there is no doubt that Bush HAS SOME and Kerry doesn't.
Flagging help again?
He's a friend of mine and I like to make my friends laugh.
Your posts have a tendency to do just that.
Quit while you have a modicum of dignity left. We probably agree on much more than we disagree about.
And one piece of advice. If you are going to call people cowards have the courage to post under your real name like I do.
This is probably all too abstract for you to understand.
Actually it does exist.
Toomey himself has admitted that it will be difficult to win statewide without taking Delaware County, and Philly;
Arlen’s the darlin’ of Delco GOP
By ANTHONY J. SANFILIPPO , asanfilippo@delcotimes.com
"Citing the need to maintain Republican control of the U.S. Senate, Delaware County GOP leaders have thrown their unequivocal support behind incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter..."
Delaware County GOP Chairman Thomas J. Judge Sr. "He’s [Specter] the incumbent and he’s doing a good job. He votes with the president most of the time, and I think he deserves our support. He has seniority and I know he will be able to beat (Democratic candidate Joseph) Hoeffel in November."
Springfield Republican boss Charles P. Sexton Jr. "As nice a guy as Toomey is, he can’t defeat Hoeffel. But Arlen Specter can."
Upper Darby Republican Chairman John McNichol "Our job is to get somebody elected who could win in November, and the determination is Arlen is a lot stronger than a non-incumbent."
"On the national level, Republican leaders show considerable concern that Rep. Toomey and those supporting him have put what will be a critical Republican Senate seat at risk by attacking Sen. Specter."
(Editorial: Specter deserves support / Those opposing incumbent are asking for trouble Sunday, April 11, 2004 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, chairman of Bush's campaign in southeastern Pennsylvania;"Look at the history," Perzel said. "Who is more likely to win in Montgomery, Delaware and Bucks, the three counties a Republican has to win to get elected? It sure isn't Toomey."
(Analysts debate outcome of Specter-Bush alliance Harrisburg Patriot-News ^ | Sunday, November 16, 2003 | PETER L. DeCOURSEY)
I don't see Santorum as OWING me in the way you describe it. And I am sure most of the people who are disappointed in Santorum's support for Specter feel similarly. Santorum's support of Specter over Toomey hurts the cause of conservatism and thus ultimately the continued survival of the nation and helps the left.
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