Santorum got booted for his efforts at "following orders and falling in line with" leaders, against his better judgment.
Sometimes, we learn much more, unfortunately, not by what we do right but what we do wrong.
Is Santorum a really great conservative, nope, is he better than those left standing today, I think so. I can go down the list on Perry (Al Gore's DNC Chairman for TX); Newt, well there's just too many to mention; then we're left with Mitt, who absolutely NO one, claims is conservative.
Perry wasn’t algore’s DNC chairman for Texas.
That issue has been discussed ad nauseum and the falsehoods long ago have been corrected.
That was 23 years ago. (BTW, the entire state of Texas was for many decades a solid Dem state...it is now solid Republican.)
That very year, Perry voted for George HW Bush over Michael Dukakis.
The following year, he became a Republican.
He was elected Ag Commissioner, defeating the left wing Dem, Jim Hightower.
He was elected Lt. Governor, defeating the moderate Dem, John Sharp, becoming the first Republican to serve in that position since Reconstruction.
He has since served 3 terms as the Republican Governor of Texas.
Most recently he defeated Kay Bailey Hutchinson (establishment Republican) in a primary, whom Karl Rove, the Bushes and Dick Cheney backed to run against him.