Posted on 12/07/2010 11:27:00 AM PST by Moseley
Will the real Rick Santorum please stand up?
BEFORE the November 2, election, Rick Santorum defended Christine O’Donnell in her US Senate race in Delaware (though trying to have it both ways to some extent).
Now, AFTER the election, Rick Santroum is now trying to jump on the bandwagon and attack the GOP’s losing candidates. Goal: NOT win elections, NOT learn how to win elections, but simply for personal aggrandizement by Rick Santorum.
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On September 21, 2010, Rick Santorum defended Christine O’Donnell as a candidate on Greta Van Sustren’s “On the Record” Rick Santorum
Santorum — famous for dumping Pat Toomey overboard in 2006 in favor of Arlen Specter — was clearly trying to have it both ways in Greta Van Sustren’s interview. But pressed by Greta, Rick Santorum was forced to line up behind Christine O’Donnell shortly after Christine O’Donnell’s September 14, 2010, primary victory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOMK8dJVmvE
RICK SANTORUM SAID ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2010:
o Santorum started to praise Christine O’Donnell’s qualifications and abilities saying “LOOK, I’VE KNOWN CHRISTINE O’DONNELL FOR YEARS…” (before Greta interrupted) clearly with a tone of praising Christine’s abilities and qualifications.
o Santorum said that Christine’s challenge in the US Senate race in Delaware was:
“So, the question is whether Christine O’Donnell in a very compressed window — Sharon Angle had MONTHS, Christine O’Donnell has WEEKS — can she do the same thing [as Sharon Angle]?
o Santorum said that Sharon Angle had SEVERAL MONTHS in which to convince and win over voters.
o Santorum said that Christine faced a difficult challenge of “a very compressed window” and “Christine O’Donnell has WEEKS” (only) to accomplish what other candidates had MONTHS to do in other States.
o Santorum said that Christine’s challenge in the election was Republicans not supporting the Republican nominee
o Santorum implicitly endorsed Christine O’Donnell as qualified, while discussing Greta’s question “What does it mean to be qualified?” Santorum explained Christine O’Donnell is qualified if the voters believe she is qualified…. it is up to the voters.
o Santorum said that Christine O’Donnell’s challenge was that “They are trying to discredit her.“
And: “If you look at what they’ve done to Christine. They have put her outside of that. They’ve said no, she’s a … she’s a, you know, she’s a whacko. She’s someone who is out there on the extreme. She’s NOT. And people will find that out.”
In response to those precise criticisms, Santorum said “SHE’s NOT. And people will find that out.”
o Santorum said: “If she is given the opportunity to do it, which she will be.” Greta interrupts: “She may.” “I think she will [turn it around]. And tonight’s interview from everything I’ve heard [interrupted]“
o So Rick Santorum predicted that Christine O”Donnell would be able to turn it around and overcome the negative attacks against her, and Rick Santorum predicted that Christine O’Donnell would “turn it around.”
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Apparently there are two theories on elections in the Republican Party:
(a) Hard work, application of mental and physical effort the old fashioned way to win over supporters and do work
(b) DO NOTHING, sit back, and then fight over the credit for the winners and throw stones at the losers.
Choice (b) is dangerous because it FAILS to actually win elections. Republican elites are not interested in doing the hard work of rolling up their sleeves and running election campaigns. They simply want to posture for the maximum personal benefit.
Republican elites have abandoned the task of running successful election campaigns and instead are simply sitting back and throwing stones at their own candidates, and attacking those with the courage to go into the arena and fight for what we believe.
While this hypocrisy among Republicans is wrong and unfair to those who valiantly try to take power from liberals, it is also destructive to the Republican party because the elites are abandoning the efforts needed to actually win at the ballot box.
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o Sharon Angle took on the Senate Majority leader — the most powerful Democrat in the country besides the President. For any Republican to unseat the incumbent Senate Majority Leader was the longest of long shots. The fact that the tea party movement (even before Sharon Angle’s nomination) made Harry Reid unpopular and brought Sharon Angle close to winning is incredible.
o Christine O’Donnell ran for US Senate in Delaware with 110,000 more Democrat than Republican registered voters. GOP elites in Delaware sat on their hands while the Democrat party increased Democrat voter registration by a stunning 11% from 2008 to 2010. While people note that Christine O’Donnell has run before without success, Christine O’Donnell took on JOE BIDEN in 2008 — an almost impossible target.
In 2010, Christine O’Donnell again sought to win the last 4 years of Joe Biden’s 6 year terms won in 2008 in a special election on November 2, 2010. Joe Biden is the Vice President of the United States, and it was his seat in his home state that Christine O”Donnell was seeking. Why did the IRS issue an erroneous tax lien, and then promptly admit they were wrong and withdraw it — but damage done? Why did the national news media come down so hard on Delaware? Having the Vice President of the United States potentially embarrassed in his own home State had nothing to do with this?
Those willing to hunt the big game in blue states deserve our greatest honor and utmost respect. Those who aimed for the easy victories in Republican-leaning States are heros, too. But no one deserves greater honor and greater respect than Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle who charged the beach at Normandy. While others picked off easy victories, Angle and O’Donnell stormed the “enemy” at their strongest points and put pressure on the Democrats on their home turf.
Real Santorum? This tells all, imo:
“Santorum — famous for dumping Pat Toomey overboard in 2006 in favor of Arlen Specter”
Gosh you guys. Maybe he is disappointed in the way she ran the campaign. He supported her when it counted and now thinks she either could have done better or ran a poor campaign. I don’t see why this is news or that he should be bashed after analyzing her loss and coming to this conclusion. We are VERY hard on folks who give opinions on certain people.
Yes. Rick Santorum was a good man, and reliably pro-life and pro-family. He was persuaded by Bush and Rove to support Arlen Specter, whom they insisted had a better chance to win than Pat Toomey.
I’m sorry he did that, because I think it lost him the next election, because his conservative base was angry with him. He did it at the urging of the party leaders, Bush and Rove. And he also said he did it out of loyalty because Specter had earlier supported him.
I blame Rove for that as much as anybody. Specter was predictably a disaster, and Rick lost the election for doing what he was asked to do by the party leadership.
Since the Tea Party revolt, people have been more willing to revolt against the party elite, but that was not the case back then.
Still, I don’t know what possible purpose Santorum can have for saying this stupid stuff now. I think he’s hoping one day to get his job back. But this ain’t the way to do it. Not now.
Maybe he is disappointed in the way she ran the campaign. He supported her when it counted and now thinks she either could have done better or ran a poor campaign.
As a Delaware resident, I can testify very well that she could have campaigned harder and more aggressively. Some criticism was certainly deserved. It wasn’t a forward and active enough campaign to really show that she meant to win.
AND lost ALL credibility at the time in doing so. Has he ever explained or apologized for that?
Of course, GW Bush also campaigned for Specter during that very same primary.
Rove trashed her before she even got out of the starting gates.
But Santorum was his best to sell very weak candidate, since she was the nominee.
But do we want a roster full of Christine O’Donnells? I don’t think so.
What else do you want from him?
Right you are! Nevada and Maryland are RAT states. While I respect both Angle and O’Donnell for their attempts, they were, at the end of the day unelectable for any number of reasons. During their campaigns (and I really watched Nevada because we have business interests there) I cringed on almost a daily basis when I read what came out of the mouths of these two. They were so wedded to their personal philosophies that they thought that every looney statement they made was a plus, when it was a minus for most of the voters. If you didn’t know anything about the election and showed up to listen to the candidates, you just had to get the feeling that both of these women were too nutty to be elected. It’s really too bad for all of us because despite these foibles, they would have been good legislators.
I like Santorum. He was a good Senator here. I am dumbfounded by his action the last few years. It seems he got a real shell shocked after the Toomey/Specter race in ‘04 and his loss to that loser Casey. He needs to get his act together.
He made a political mistake but he is still right on policy.
He also said in 2007 “The only one I wouldn’t support is McCain.”
“They were so wedded to their personal philosophies that they thought that every looney statement they made was a plus, when it was a minus for most of the voters.”
Conservatives can win everywhere once they start acting like responsible adults and not like radio talk show hosts.
Never been a Santorum fan. Hope he doesn’t run for POTUS.
I don’t see how he will matter either way.
> AND lost ALL credibility at the time in doing so. Has he ever explained or apologized for that?
No and despite some (what I think) feigned support (he’s running for something?) for _certain_ tea party candidates, he still really is an anti-libertarian, anti-small gov., anti-truly free market. Like hinckley buzzard says - pro-life is about it.
“I am not a witch” was certainly a FUBAR campaign item.
> Still, I don’t know what possible purpose Santorum can have for saying this stupid stuff now. I think he’s hoping one day to get his job back. But this ain’t the way to do it. Not now.
Yours was possibly the best spin on where Santorum stands, but I’ll never forget his comments on libertarians even before the Toomey thing. He’s in the John Kasich traitor territory for me... Kasich got the first assault weapons ban passed for Clinton.
Santorum made his choice six years ago when he supported Arlen over Pat.
Arlen’s Democrat vote was the extra vote needed for Obama-Care to make cloture,IIRC.
I voted for Santorum in 2000 and thought he had solid conservative values, in 2006 I grudgingly voted for him again(I loathed Casey) but he strayed and now I’m done with him.
As far as I’m concerned he’s an arrogant opportunist who sucks up to the Rob Gleason-Brabender-Cox Republican establishment big government crowd.
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