Romney Attacks Santorum for Supporting Roberts and Alito

American Spectator ^ | 2.23.12 | JEFFREY LORD

[Qbert]

In an amazing moment in last night's debate, Rick Santorum suddenly found himself under attack by Mitt Romney -- for seeing to it that the Supreme Court had two conservative justices.

As usual, the moment was turned upside down by the media. In 2004, Santorum, then Pennsylvania's junior Republican Senator, famously supported Arlen Specter for re-nomination over the conservative Pat Toomey. To anyone paying attention in the day, it was crystal clear that Specter, if re-elected, would be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a longtime goal of the one-time Philadelphia District Attorney. Toomey, a businessman, would not only be a freshman if elected, he wouldn't be sitting on the Judiciary Committee.

The dilemma for Pennsylvania Republicans was clear...

[Snip]

...Santorum, at considerable risk to his own Senate seat and after confronting Specter on the subject, endorsed his senior colleague. Two years later, Santorum did pay the price. His famous 18-point loss came at the hands of not just angry liberals but angry Toomey supporters seeking revenge.

[Snip]

Specter did as promised, skillfully wielding the gavel, barking back at an aggressive Ted Kennedy -- and getting both Roberts and Alito confirmed. Where to this moment the two sit as a solid core of the conservative majority on the Court.

[Snip]

Lost in the gotcha moment last night, in which Romney said that Obamacare -- the Son of Romneycare -- was made possible by Santorum's support of Specter, was the unspoken fact of the Supreme Court.

[Snip]

The fact that Romney seems clueless to the point is only one more indication that were he to be trusted himself with a Supreme Court nomination -- trouble.

[ilgipper]

Spector was the chairman of the judiciary committee. He could have made it very difficult to get good appointments through. I didn’t like it at the time that bush and santorum did it, but it proved to be smart to get conservatives through the committees.

[Reddy]

I recently read a post by a lib on Facebook who said he would be fine with EITHER Romney or Obama, pointing out the fact that both are pro-abortion and would ensure that there would be a universal health care mandate.

Any conservative who votes for Romney during the primary should be summarily marched outside and shot (figuratively speaking since bigsis is watching).

[parksstp]

According to Wiki, had Spector lost in 2004 but the GOP had gotten the majority, next in line for the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Widestance, er Larry Craig.

Maybe that had something to do with it?