Rick Santorum launches conservative PAC ("defeating Obama is first priority")

Former Republican presidential contender and Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum announced the formation of a new conservative group Friday, saying it will seek to thwart President Obama's bid for re-election in 2012.

"The defeat of Barack Obama, and those who support his policies, will be our first priority."

Sun, I appreciate your passion. I really do.

If you would indulge me, do you live in Pa? Do you have any face to face experience with Santorum?

Do you know that his ‘pro gun’ score was only 64%, according to GOA? That’s a failing grade, not something to be proud of.

Do you know that Mr Pro Life NEVER supported a pro life senate candidate they way he supported Mr Abortion, Arlen Specter?

Do you know that Santorum supported Specter’s bid for president in 1996 and Specter wanted to get rid of the GOP’s pro life plank?

Do you know that Santorum did work for 2 pro abortion candidates who won their election bids and the result was tht any pro life vote he cast was nullified by their pro abortion votes.

Did you know that Santorum described himself as a ‘big government conservative’? Can you tell me what that is and how it is possible given that it is an oxymoron?

Rick won his races handily in the early 90s when he had an unblemished record as a solid social conservative. As time went on, he became a big spender and a waffler. He lost in 2006 because he endorsed a pro abortion, anti gun liberal (Arlen Specter) and revealed himself to be a part hack and not a principled conservative. In the early elections, he drew pro life and pro gun democrat support. He lost them and the election in 2006 because he was not conservative enough. Even the dems were smart enough to oppose him was a candidate who was purported to be pro life and pro gun. Casey beat out 2 other candidates. Of course, Casey is neither pro gun or pro life, but that wasn’t known by too many people back then. Pa rejected him by 18 points and we’re not about to rehire him for anything or support him financially in any endeavor.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give you my first hand experience with Santorum.

Thanx for your thoughtful post, even if we disagree.

Mark Levin, a conservative’s conservative, knows Rick Santorum even better than you do, and Levin said that Santorum is principled, and one of the most conservative senators we’ve had in 50 years.

Rick Santorum not only gets good ratings because of his voting record, he also, unlike many politicians GETS THINGS DONE.

As I said in another post, Rick received an A+ rating from the NRA, higher than Ron Paul or Gingrich, and of course Romney, and here’s what Rick Santorum ACCOMPLISHED:

Santorum fought to keep gun companies in the U.S.A.! Santorum gets things done, because he is a figher!
Just ask the NRA CEO:

‘“He [Rick Santorum] was the most effective advocate of bringing it [legislation to protect gun companies from frivolous lawsuits] to the floor and getting a vote scheduled. He used his influence to get it to the floor. Without that, we would have lost every American gun company.”

– Wayne LaPierre, CEO – National Rifle Association, October 25, 2006’

excerpt http://www.ricksantorum.com/defending-2nd-amendment-rights

Now let’s go to pro-life. He WALKS the WALK! I don’t know why folks, while they might not agree with Rick, can’t accept that he has reasons why he does some things, when he WALKED the WALK.

Rick Santorum’s own wife didn’t want him to endorse Specter, Rick said, but he did it because he knew Specter would win, and Specter did win by an excellent margin. By keeping the Senate majority, the Republicans had control of the Judicial Committee, rather than the Dems. If the Dems had control, they would not allow Bush’s judicial nominees to go to the floor for an up or down vote.

Whether you agree with Rick, or not (his own wife did not), at least trust his motives, especially when he has WALKED the pro-life WALK, at least twice.

We agree on at least one thing. We will disagree on Santorum with regard to intent and effectiveness. I’ll also throw in willingness to take up important battles.

I still believe that Toomey would have won in that election, keeping the majority and replacing Specter with Jon Kyl as head of the judiciary committee. Keep in mind that Toomey did handily win the senate just a few years later.

As for the NRA, they continued to give Arlen Specter an A
rating even though he voted for the so called ‘assault weapons’ban. To me, the NRA endorsement is less than principled or reliable.

And he doesn’t walk the walk if he is endorsing pro abortion candidates no matter what his self serving stated reasons are. He has NEVER endorsed or worked to elect a pro lifer in 12 years in the senate. NEVER. How is that pro life. His wife may have had a sincere change of heart since her days of working for an abortionist (and maybe that is why she changed) but apparently Rick didn’t value her opinion much since he sided with the abortion candidate in at least 3 races.

Since you are relying on the opinions of La Pierre and Levin, may I assume that you do not live in PA and do not have any personal interaction with Santorum? I’ve seen Rick in action. He is not gutsy. I will say this, he does give a great red meat speech for conservatives at fundraisers and in front of the camera. Not so much otherwise.

Rick Santorum had two disabled children, and fights for all children. Rick was the architect of the effort to ban partial-birth abortion. Rick does more than simply vote pro-life.

Not only would Toomey have less of a chance of winning, he would not have been the head of the Judicial Committee, as Specter was, and Rick said that we would not have Alito, if it weren’t for Specter. Even Toomey endorsed Santorum for his last U.S. Senate race. He knew.

Santorum actually wrote the Welfare Reform bill, and didn’t just vote for it.

Santorum does the work, is brilliant and is a fighter, not just a run-of-the-mill senator who merely voted the right way. His wife said he is brilliant, and he is.

According top NRA CEO, we would not have gun manufacturers in our country, and you and me would be buying our guns from other countries, probably Red China.

“So you canNOT name even one conservative politician, and tell us how they are different from Santorum and WHY?”

Why bother? Santorum is not a conservative, neither are most Republicans nor any Democrats in Congress.

The 20 or so R Congresspersons who refused to go along with the “compromise” bill raising the federal debt limit in August 2011 would be examples of representatives who stuck to their oath of office. I’ll leave it to you to check the roll call on that.

“I think you better brush up on your research”

Santorum has already said that he does not believe in limited government. His voting record reflects that. No further research is needed.

Even Ronald Reagan made mistakes, and would be the first one to admit that. We all make mistakes.

I did address your concerns. Feel free to let me know what else bothers you, but if you don’t mind here’s what I said about Santorum’s pro-life position, and 2nd amendment position:

“Rick Santorum not only gets good ratings because of his voting record, he also, unlike many politicians GETS THINGS DONE.

As I said in another post, Rick received an A+ rating from the NRA, higher than Ron Paul or Gingrich, and of course Romney, and here’s what Rick Santorum ACCOMPLISHED:

Santorum fought to keep gun companies in the U.S.A.! Santorum gets things done, because he is a figher!
Just ask the NRA CEO:

– Wayne LaPierre, CEO – National Rifle Association, October 25, 2006’

excerpt http://www.ricksantorum.com/defending-2nd-amendment-rights

Now let’s go to pro-life. He WALKS the WALK! I don’t know why folks, while they might not agree with Rick, can’t accept that he has reasons why he does some things, when he WALKED the WALK.

Whether you agree with Rick, or not (his own wife did not), at least trust his motives, especially when he has WALKED the pro-life WALK, at least twice.”

Sun, I read what you wrote the first time. Repeating it does not make it have more impact because I’ve seen him veer off the path rather than ‘walk the walk’.

I had asked if you lived in Pa and if you had any face to face time with Rick. You didn’t respond on either question.

It’s funny, when Rick was more agressively conservative in the early days, the GOP didn’t like him but conservatives did. Over time, that changed and mostly now conservatives want nothing to do with him because we see him as a predictable party hack with do feality to principle (except at fundraisers). He still gives a great speech. Too bad it’s hollow.

I seem to know some things about Rick Santorum that you know, even though you live in PA and had a face-to-face with him.

Political Arsonist, you seem like a super nice person, but you need to use facts rather than just say you had a face-to-face with Rick.

Here are a few more facts:

“The record will show that Santorum was and is a solid, mainstream conservative Congressman and Senator. In the 1990s, Santorum was a part of the Gingrich-led Congress that balanced the budget. And in 2002 to 2006 the budget deficit went to $250 billion – high but nothing like the level under Obama, Reid and Pelosi. Claims that Santorum is a big-government conservative are simply contrary to his full record snip

in the special election for Congress in New York’s 23rd district. Santorum was the second high profile potential presidential candidate (Sarah Palin was the first) to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava. This showed leadership for the limited government cause because of the timing of the endorsement, coming before establishment Republicans had figured out that Scozzafava was a losing candidate.
This is interesting because Newt Gingrich went a different way and endorsed the non-conservative Scozzafava. snip

Both Newt and Santorum are conservative. Just not perfect conservatives. For those who say that Santorum is not a ‘true conservative’, I would argue simply that if an 85% ACU rating and leadership on conservative issues in Congress for almost 2 decades is not enough, you will NEVER find a ‘true conservative’ in the Presidential field.

For the rest of us without that fine a filter, yes, Rick Santorum is a ‘true conservative’. Conservatives will be happy with his SCOTUS picks, his support of our military, his support for life, his tax reform and entitlement reforms, his pro-energy policies, his economic growth agenda, his fiscally responsible budgets, and his appeal to get America working again”

excerpt http://www.redstate.com/wosg/2012/01/06/rick-santorum-yes-he-is-a-true-conservative/

Have a great weekend!

Thanks, but really, I am not that nice.

It wasn’t ‘a’ face to face. It was multiple face to face meetings. I watched him attack anyone who dared to question his votes. I witnessed his arrogance towards the little people. He thought that he was better than the rest of us.

I know his gun vote record and it stinks. I was there when he refused to advance pro gun legislation but wanted our time, our money, our work, and our vote on a promise that he’d act after the election.

You still consider him pro life when his record clearly doesn’t support it. You cannot back pro abortionists and negate your own vote for life and truly be pro life.

He did have a conservative record but that diminished with time. We here in Pa know it but we also know that he will not be appointing any judges because we will never elect him again to anything.

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