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.