Posted on 11/21/2005 8:41:11 AM PST by Born Conservative
WASHINGTON - After 11 years in the Senate, Rick Santorum has become one of the most powerful and influential leaders in state and national politics.
He boasts a close relationship with President Bush, he's the No. 3 GOP leader in the Senate, and he is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the White House.
An incumbent running for re-election with such credentials normally would scare off most challengers and have few political worries.
Yet low public approval ratings, a well-liked opponent, an increasingly unpopular president mired in an equally unpopular war, an unhappy electorate, public perceptions of ethics lapses by Republicans and Santorum's own miscues have turned next year's Senate election upside down.
Advisers to Santorum concede they are growing increasingly frustrated by his weak support and the tactics of state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., his likely Democratic opponent.
Some analysts and party officials say Santorum's campaign tactics, such as calling for 10 debates a year before the election, are bordering on desperate, particularly for a two-term incumbent.
"I think there is a certain frustration on my level," said John Brabender, Santorum's longtime adviser and media consultant.
"Every day I have to hear Bobby Casey's criticizing without saying what alternative he would offer," he said. "At least be man enough to offer solutions as well or stand on the same stages."
With Santorum trailing Casey by 15 to 20 percentage points in independent polling, Republicans maintain that Pennsylvania voters would be less enamored with Casey, the son of the former governor, if he were less reluctant to tell them his positions on many of the issues that Santorum votes on.
Casey, who last week released an ethics reform plan while rebuking Santorum for his ethics, has criticized Bush and Santorum's proposal for private Social Security accounts and spending cuts for popular programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
He has unveiled an economic plan and advocated eliminating some of the tax cuts for the wealthiest that Bush is seeking to extend. Casey has said he would like to use that money for programs and relief for the middle class and poor.
He's also voiced concerns about how the Bush administration has managed the Iraq war, which he said he would have supported based on the intelligence that was provided to Congress.
But Santorum and GOP aides have mounted an aggressive campaign that accuses Casey of running a stealth campaign and refusing to say how he would vote on the same issues as Santorum.
Last week, Santorum challenged Casey to 10 debates before the general election. Political experts say that might be unprecedented for an incumbent.
Casey plans to debate Santorum after the primary, according to aides.
"Casey has a significant polling advantage which allows him to act like an incumbent, and incumbents debate few times and minimize exposing themselves to criticism," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster and political analyst at Franklin & Marshall College.
Sen. Arlen Specter, for example, agreed to only a handful of debates with his primary opponent, Rep. Pat Toomey, after much stalling last year.
"Politics is a game of strategy and tactics, and at the moment, Casey can play a little rope-a-dope and at the moment a year from the election doesn't have to campaign like he's behind or needs name recognition," Madonna said.
He added: "At the moment, Casey's best strategy might be to go to the Caribbean and stay away."
Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said he doesn't fault Santorum for pressing for debates but said only political insiders and journalists are paying attention to the early jousting in what is expected to be the premier race of next year's midterm elections.
"It's by any count incredibly early to be talking about that," he said.
Brabender claims Santorum has always called for debates with his opponents. But it wasn't until former Rep. Ron Klink clinched the Democratic nomination in 2000 that Santorum agreed to debates.
Santorum's record has become both an advantage and his biggest vulnerability in the race with Casey, who has never had to vote on similar legislation in the row offices he's held.
While Santorum can boast a record of fiscal discipline or promotion of conservative causes, Democrats and Casey have found a trove of votes against higher spending for popular programs such as those that benefit veterans and the poor.
Besides trying to create the impression that Casey is hiding, Santorum and his advisers think debating Casey might be their best bet to provide a contrast they believe will showcase the incumbent's strengths.
"They don't want to be seen on the same stage as Rick Santorum because they are concerned they won't have the same command of the issues," Brabender said.
How does that reconcile itself with his Specter debacle ?
Rick Santorum's support of Spector was the one thing in his current term with which I disagree. (I sort of understand why he did it, but was still ticked)
On the other hand, Santorum is one of the few GOP leaders who is not afraid to stand up and speak out for conservative principles. (remember Terri Shaivo? Whatever your position, you gotta give Santorum props for being unafraid to speak his mind)
He is the same strong advocate on Life, low taxes, business issues, the war against Islam loonies, etc.
I simply cant believe Pennsylvanians would turn away such a strong, young, principaled leader.
I hadn't heard about him Bush bashing. In fact, hadn't even heard about him making an appearance in Imus' radio program. So I googled it. OMG, LOL funny. Below snippet from a liberal website, not my views, but made me laugh.
Wednesday, November 2. 2005WHOA. We're not sure where to even begin with this one. Rick Santorum called in unannounced to Imus today after Imus apparently referred to Rick as a "suit dummy." Rick wanted to refute Imus' characterization of him. We don't believe he was successful.
Here's the audio of a large chunk of the interview.
In the clip Rick does the following:
- Says Libby, Cheney and Chalabi are all honest and didn't lie.
- Claims Joe Wilson is a liar.
- Says the CIA has a grudge against Chalabi and tried to destroy him.
- Snaps out on Imus for challenging his claims (a recurring theme we've discussed before).
- Compares not being able to safely drive from the Baghdad Airport into Baghdad today to conditions in Philadelphia in 1778 - to which, Imus points out there was no airport in Philadelphia then.
- Says that Imus' wife called him and said she wanted to "do a threesome."
- Calls Bill Frist, "a really decent, honorable man."
Besides pointing out the problem with Rick's comparison of Baghdad to Philadelphia in 1778, Imus has at least two great lines during the interview. Almost 5 minutes into the audio clip, in response to Rick's analysis of the situation in Iraq Imus says, "you have an IV of the neo-con Kool-Aid, don't you?" One minute later in the clip Imus accuses Rick of being "so misguided it's almost disturbing."
"Suit dummy" sounds much nicer in comparison.
http://santorumexposed.com/serendipity/index.php
Nov 2, 2005
By: Phil Singer, DSCCThis morning, Rick Santorum appeared on Imus in the Morning and defended the Bush Administrations motivation for going to war in Iraq. When pressed by Imus to comment on whether Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney and the rest of that crowd lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Santorum launched an all out defense of the Bush Administration. These misguided comments come just days after Libby was indicted for his role in the CIA leak case and after the total number of U.S. casualties topped the 2,000 mark.
http://www.dscc.org/news/roundup/20051102_santorumbush/
When Rick Santorum went on Don Imus' morning show on MSNBC this week, he received an unlikely de facto endorsement. Imus, who is known for disliking Republicans, particularly incumbent politicians, said: "I like Senator Santorum and I think you ought to be re-elected."Imus' co-hosts, Charles and Bernie, backed up Sen. Santorum as well, with Charles saying the Imus team should all "hang" with the Senator. Bernie questioned Bob Casey, Jr., the likely Democrat opponent in the race, "I think we ought to stick with our guy [Santorum]. Just because he's [Casey] the governor's son, he's going to be a senator? That's nepotism." (MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning," 9/28/05)
If by some miracle, the democrats take the House and Senate, they will vote to impeach, and Casey will vote with democrats to convict.
My Republican brothers told me yesterday they're not voting next time here in PA, and they don't care if Bush gets impeached.
This sad state of politics exists because there are few differences in parties.
Bush and Santorum choose to thwart a conservative in Pa. for the Senate. Now the party has the gall to ask for conservative votes for Santorum. That is the height of hypocrisy.
I will vote but the office of Senator will remain blank.
A saw recently where there are new ads praising Santorum's tax cuts in PA. Casey is rightfully upset about this b/c it seems to be the first major ad buy by an outside group. It looks like Santorum is benefitting from ads from people who don't have to identify themselves. I know this is somewhat normal, but it just gets under my skin that it's being initiated by Santorum.
Damn straight. If you can't win on the pork, what can you win on?
This is a particularly squalid example of corruption, and uncomfortably similar to the "crony capitalism" that has derailed attempts to introduce a free market into the former Soviet vassal states.
I figured that since you can square Santorum's various government projects with the notion that he is a "conservative", you were the go-to guy for an explanation of how this statement squares with the notion that he is an advocate of "traditional morality".
Want to help Santorum? Go to http://www.teamvolunteer.com/Login.aspx?client=santorum/ and sign up to make phone calls using your free cell long distance to registered Republican voters in Pennsylvania and work to get out the vote for Santorum! You just sign up with the "register" link, then afterwards you'll get an e-mail approving you with a login and password that then allows you to go in and get phone numbers and names of Republican voters. They provide a script and for each number you call you just check off the result and you're given another.
I did 30 on Monday 30 again today and it was fun! People were nice and seemed really open to hearing a plea on Santorum's behalf. Most were glad I was calling and a few sounded like they may not have been planning to vote but now will.
If enough of us make these calls, we can change the state of play for Santorum. Please help and don't be shy! Let's prove the media pukes wrong and really stuff it in their faces when Santorum shocks the hell out of them and wins!!
So, now who is growing desperate??
Nancee
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