Santorum clashes with Occupy protesters, calls them ‘radical element’

Washington Post ^ | 02/14/2012

[SeekAndFind]

TACOMA, Wash. — Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum clashed with Tacoma Occupy protesters Monday night during his first visit to a state he said would be a “momentum changer” heading into Super Tuesday.

Minutes into Santorum’s speech, protesters began chanting and shouting. They rarely stopped over the next half-hour.

“I think it’s really important to understand what this radical element represents,” Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, told hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Washington Historical Museum. “What they represent is true intolerance.”

Police dragged away two protesters in the midst of Santorum’s speech.

The event took place next to the Occupy protest camp site. Santorum, who trails rival Mitt Romney in fundraising and organization, depended on the Washington Republican Party to organize Monday’s event.

“I understand their frustration. For three years they haven’t been able to find work,” Santorum said after his supporters chanted, “Get a job.”

Santorum is the first Republican presidential candidate to visit Washington state this year. It holds nonbinding presidential caucuses on March 3.

[Harlan1196]

Hope he had a hazmat suit on.

[FrankR]

[TexasCajun]

Better watch out out for some prissy butt-boy throwing his glitter-bomb.

They are everywhere. ...Mutt's been hit once or twice already.

[GSWarrior]

Well, duh!

[jakerobins]

I think Rick will do a good job debating Obama....The State Run Media will announce obama won the debate no matter who is our nominee. Newt would do a great job, but the truth and facts slide off Barry like Water off a ducks back!

[Navy Patriot]

Santorum clashes with Occupy protesters, calls them ‘radical element’

Darn, I thought they were "criminals".

[napscoordinator]

I think you are so wrong. Who is the only one who beat Romney to a pulp? That would be Santorum on the last debate. Newt allowed Romney to beat him to a pulp. I don’t see how Newt can beat Obama if he can’t beat Romney.

[allmendream]

How many Democrat politicians referred to the Tea Party as a “radical element” or much much worse?

Who was it that suggested that “they can go straight to hell”?

Who was it that said or implied that they were all racists?

[Bitsy]

radical element? I have better names for them but I can’t say or print them - my computer would explode! The for hire, bunch of aging hippies and the rest of the barn dung that live off us tax payers,destroys property and hurts others while we are at work trying to make money to pay our bills and theirs too. I wish them to be flushed out and routed to a country they can truly appreciate - Greece where the freeloaders are finally realizing that NOTHING is free.

[FrankR]

I'm not trying to be "right", only presenting a viewpoint.

Each debate is different, usually preceded by thousands of dollars in attack ads.

I don't base anything on any single debate performance, but the sum of all the debates. Santorum has been more or less given a pass as Romney and Gingrich battled it out, and when the public got tired of the free-for-all, they migrated to Rick to take a break.

Usually when Santorum is cornered he gets in a snit and has a hissy-fit about his uber-conservative credentials. He looks childish, and if I see it, then the obama people see it too.

In an excerpt from a Chuck Norris column, there are many reasons that Santorum is NOT "Richie Cunningham", and I consider those things in my views:

--Santorum was a serial earmarker -- requesting billions of dollars during his time in the Senate and not reversing his position on earmarks until 2010, when he was out of Congress.

--Santorum voted to raise the national debt ceiling five times.

--Santorum voted for the 2005 highway bill that included thousands of wasteful earmarks, including the "bridge to nowhere."

--Santorum voted for the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, which removed duties on textile and apparel goods traded among participating nations, resulting in nearly all textile companies leaving the South.

--Santorum voted for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (though he now says he would repeal it), which imposed job-killing federal regulations on businesses.

--Santorum voted against the National Right to Work Act of 1995, which would have repealed provisions of federal law that require employees to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.

--Santorum voted for taxes in the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act.

--Santorum voted for the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, which raised the minimum wage, allowed punitive damages for injury or illness to be taxed, allowed damages for emotional distress to be taxed, and repealed the diesel fuel tax rebate to purchasers of diesel-powered cars and light trucks.

--Santorum voted to confirm President Bill Clinton's nomination of Alan Greenspan to be chairman of the Federal Reserve System for a fourth four-year term.

--Santorum voted for the Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit, known as Part D, though he's critical of it now. It was the largest expansion of entitlement spending since President Lyndon Johnson's administration, and it costs taxpayers more than $60 billion a year and has almost $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

--Santorum voted in 1997 to support the Lautenberg gun ban, "which stripped law-abiding gun owners of their Second Amendment rights for life, simply because they spanked their children or did nothing more than grab a spouse's wrist," according to a press release from Dudley Brown, executive director of the National Association for Gun Rights.

--Santorum voted in 1999 for a bill "disguised as an attempt to increase penalties on drug traffickers with guns ... but it also included a provision to require federal background checks at gun shows," according to Brown.

--Santorum "came to anti-gun Arlen Specter's defense in 2004 when he was down in the polls against pro-gun Republican Pat Toomey. Specter won and continued to push for gun control during his years in the Senate," Brown said.

--Santorum voted with Barbara Boxer in 2005 on the Gun Lock Requirement Amendment.

--Santorum voted for the No Child Left Behind Act.

--Santorum sponsored legislation to force companies to pay laid-off workers benefits.

--Santorum worked for an increase in funding Head Start and other big-government programs.

--Santorum voted for taxpayer money to go to Pennsylvania families for their heating bills.

--Santorum introduced and co-sponsored big-government health care bills.

--Santorum voted for HR 796, a bill that would have protected abortion clinics.

--Santorum actively supports The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which "channels a large portion of its funds through Planned Parenthood's affiliates around the world and through a British group Marie Stopes International (the largest chain of abortion mills in the UK)," according to a letter from the Gerard Health Foundation, which provides millions of dollars to pro-life groups.

--Santorum boasted of teaming up with Joe Lieberman, Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton in his 2006 political ad during his race for re-election to the Senate, which he lost to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. by the largest margin of victory ever for a Democratic Senate nominee in Pennsylvania and the largest margin of victory for a Senate challenger in the 2006 elections.

--Santorum opposed the tea party and its reforms in the Republican Party, saying, "I've got some real concerns about (the libertarian) movement within the Republican Party and the tea party movement to sort of refashion conservatism, and I will vocally and publicly oppose it."

It's no wonder that in January, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas accused Santorum of having a "very liberal" political record.

I'm bringing this up now because if Santorum were to win the nomination, President Barack Obama definitely would bring this up in the general election campaign.

And the question that keeps coming back to my mind about Santorum is: How can the "alternative to Romney" also be a Romney supporter?

[BillT]

I think that it is time to arm several event guards with tazers; anyone out of line of disruptive gets zapped!

No harm no foul.

Freedom of speech is a two way street; except for the loonie left.

[alstewartfan]

Romney and Gingrich can’t out-debate Santorum, why why would a stuttering, stammering liar be able to beat him? If you noticed, Rick cleaned up in the last two debates. Bob

[alstewartfan]

The second “why” is a typo.

[jwalsh07]

You have a high opinion of Obama’s intellect. The only perspective I know that allows that is the one from the far left of the Bell Curve. My condolences.

[FrankR]

Santorum just happens to be the most conservative with the least baggage left in the race...the media is picking him and the timid are falling right in line.

obama's machine will have him fried before an debate ever happens.

I watched the GOP-E and the MSM pick our last candidate - and had it not been for the last minute surge from Palin entering the race, McCain't would have been soundly tromped.

Ignoring the mistakes of the past means getting more of the same in the future.

[napscoordinator]

Every vote that Santorum made with President George W. Bush with a Republican House and Senate, I completely forgive Santorum for. There is no way that a Republican is going against the entire Republican Congress and President. Had he done that people here would have called him a traitor. So that takes a big part of your list out of contention. Now for the rest. I will tell you that those were add-on’s to bigger bills. So as far as I am concerned, Santorum’s record is clean and most people obviously agree with me. I do appreciate you putting together the list just the same though.

[ETL]

You have a high opinion of Obama’s intellect. The only perspective I know that allows that is the one from the far left of the Bell Curve.

Didn't you know, Obama is an 'intellectual', as are Ayers and Dohrn? At least according to their fellow lefties.

The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC)
April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference
[Participants include: William/Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama]

April 19th-20th, 2002
Chicago Illinois Union
828 S. Wolcott

This conference is part of the Center's mission of helping to create a more engaged civil society, working towards social change, fostering coalitions between theorists and activists, and combating anti-intellectualism in contemporary culture. It will be both a celebration of ideas and a rigorous examination of the roles and responsibilities that intellectuals play in society.

I. Why Do Ideas Matter? (a keynote panel)

We introduce the “meta” theme of the conference by hearing “success stories” from diverse voices discussing their experiences intervening intellectually.

Timuel Black, Chicago activist; Prof. Emeritus, City Colleges of Chicago
Lonnie Bunch, President, Chicago Historical Society
Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University Law School, Children and Family Justice Center
Gerald Graff, UIC, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Richard Rorty, Stanford University, Philosophy

III. Lunch and Public Encounters

Alternative breakout tours led by Chicago activists. Tours of Bronzeville and other communities, and visits to organizations that are working on partnering theorists with activists.

IV. Intellectuals in Times of Crisis
Experiences and applications of intellectual work in urgent situations.

William Ayers, UIC, College of Education; author of Fugitive Days
Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University, Center for International Human Rights
Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago, Political Science
Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune; In These Times
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Barbara Ransby, UIC, African-American Studies (moderator)

The Center for Public Intellectuals
University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC):
http://www.uic.edu/classes/las/las400/conferencealt.htm
_____________________________________________________

"Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!"
-Weather Underground leader and wife of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn ("intellectual"), referring to the Manson murders

Article: Allies in War -by David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63512670-BF7C-42A0-B41D-5D0FB9E09C09
_____________________________________________________

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at"
--Bill Ayers ("intellectual") (1970), quoted in New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
_____________________________________________________

"It was at the Chicago home of [Bill] Ayers and [Bernardine] Dohrn that ["intellectual"] Obama, then an up-and-coming 'community organizer,' had his political coming out party in 1995. Not content with this rite of passage in Lefty World — where unrepentant terrorists are regarded as progressive luminaries, still working 'only to educate' — both Obamas tended to the relationship with the Ayers."
Article: The Company He Keeps:
Meet Obama’s circle: The same old America-hating Left
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThjYTU1ZDBjNmQ2YzcwNzU1MmYwN2JiMWY0ZGI0NDA=&w=MA==

[tinamina]

The article says that Santorum had to rely on the WA State GOP to organize the event. Isn’t this a strange place to hold a meeting? Right next to an Occupy camp? I wonder if they would have found the same site for a Romney rally?

[RitchieAprile]

Start with his car and his house, the %1er and hypocrite.