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.
Specters strength is the Philly Suburbs, RINO and Reagan dem turf.
Specter campaigned for and tapped wallets in the Philly burbs for Santorum.
Santorum feels he owes him. Thats it.
Says nothing about Specter, Toomey or Santorum.
Toomey and Santorum are pro lfe, pro gun social conservatives who have read the constitution. My kind of guys.
Specter is nomially conservative fiscally and a social liberal. Not my cup of tea, but that cup of tea goes down easy in the Philly suburbs. I know that because I know the area, my former partner lived there for the past 30 years.
Regardless it is a disgrace and we can do without this kind of political reality. Santorum should be ashamed.
Term limits would help to end a lot of this ugliness.
Pffft!...vote for Toomey.
FMCDH
Even if Specter somehow holds on to his seat, HE WILL BACKSTAB THE PRESIDENT JUST LIKE HE DID BEFORE WHEN HE BLOCKED HIS JUDICIAL NOMINEES AND VOTED AGAINST BUSH'S TAX CUTS, and just like he Borked Judge Robert Bork before-hand.
Specter = Ultra-RINO who should be put out to pasture.
We obviously have differing opinions on loyalty and debts. Nowhere to go from here.
Well, I suppose you can punish Santorum in the next election by voting for his dem opponent.
Specter has ads on TV and radio in which the President says he is supporting Arlen. President Bush says Arlen is an "independent voice" in PA, but "when you need him he is there." Not sure that the President will actively campaign by showing up at events for Specter.
Local conservative morning drive-time host is also supporting Specter -- all with the belief that Toomey will have no traction state-wide in the November election.
Will Bush campaign for Ron Paul and Tom DeLay? After all, they're both incumbents....
Supporting the incumbent when he's a Republican traitor is wrong. Period.
So, he likely won't.
Just stick with the incumbent - regardless of what happens the GOP will still retain a Senate seat. Besides, Toomey's supporters can read between the lines. They know that Bush and Santorum's support of Specter is half-hearted at best and tepid at worst and they're only doing it because that's the way politics are played in Washington, unfortunately.
It is my fondest wish that Rick Santorum becomes the Senate Majority Leader.
That being said, I've beat the streets for Toomey and would have been willing to do the same for Rick.
I met Toomey at the March for Life and I've donated to his campaign. There are NO politicians in Ct who I will donate to so I pick and choose around the country. Guys like Herman Cain and Vernon Robinson, unabashed pro life, pro gun social conservatives.
Oh come on. If Spectator can't beat Toomey what makes you think he'll be able to beat Santorum?
Besides, Specter is in 74 years old. He should have done the honorable thing and retired. He doesn't need the seat what more can he accomplish, or not accomplish I should say? The Senate has way too many old people already who look ready for Hospice care.
More importantly, Spector will become chair of the SJC comittee in the next congress. The thought makes my skin crawl, and I imagine that it did to Bush, Rove, et al. I also believe that Specor doesnt have the physical stamina for the protracted committee and floor fights on nominees, and if you think the last year was bad, wait till we get a few SC nominations. So my theory is that in return for GOP re-election support, Spector agreed NOT to take the SJC chair. It's the ONLY reason that makes sense..
He sure had the stamina when he and the Rats ran Bork out of town.
Pure wishful thinking on your part. Specter will be the SJC - and Bush will get burnt because Specter is nothing more than a lying, backstabbing socialist disguised as a Pubbie.
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