Tag: Rick Santorum

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Rick Santorum latest target after “surging” into 3rd in Iowa

Rick Perry’s campaign wasted no time going after Rick Santorum following the release of a new CNN/Time/ORC International poll that showed the former Pennsylvania senator surging into third place in Iowa.

In a new radio ad released by Perry’s team Thursday, Santorum is portrayed as a free-spending Washington insider who voted for earmarks and wasteful spending during his time in Congress.

The spot features a clip of Santorum saying he was “very proud of the earmarks” he wrote into spending legislation.

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Money for endorsement? Santorum and Iowa Conservative leader in controversy

An Iowa Christian conservative leader who bestowed his highly sought-after endorsement on presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week is now at the center of a controversy over whether he asked for cash in exchange for his public support.

Less than 48-hours after receiving the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the prominent evangelical group The Family Leader, Santorum disclosed that the prominent Iowan told him he needed money to make the most out of the endorsement.

“Clearly the endorsement was for sale — without a doubt,” one source said.  It’s a charge that The Family Leader flatly denied.

But even Santorum acknowledged in an interview with CNN that money was among the topics he and Vander Plaats discussed last weekend ahead of Tuesday’s endorsement press conference.

“What he talked about was he needed money to promote the endorsement and that that would be important to do that,” Santorum told CNN. “There was never a direct ask for me to go out and raise money for it.”

The former Pennsylvania senator’s statement differs from what he told ABC News on Monday night — just hours before Vander Plaats endorsed him. At a campaign event in Indianola, Iowa, Santorum said the issue of money never came up in his conversations with the Christian leader.

Read more at ABC News

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Rick Santorum: I don’t hate gays

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

Last night, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren pressed Rick Santorum on how he planned to secure the gay vote in Iowa, given his strong opposition to same-sex marriage and endorsement from Bob Vander Plaats, the ant-gay leader who compares homosexuality to a public health risk.

Santorum — who himself has likened same-sex marriage to bestiality and almost every inanimate object — explained that gay people “have the rights of every other citizen,” before claiming they are immoral, unfit for parenthood, and shouldn’t be allowed to marry:

VAN SUSTEREN: How are you going to get the gay vote? How can you convince them that despite, you know, your views and his [Bob Vander Plaats] views, that you could — I mean, is there any way that you could convince them to vote for you?

SANTORUM: Well, look, I have nothing against gay people. They have rights of every other citizen. But what they did in Iowa and what some are trying to do, not all gays, but some are trying to do is change the laws of this country with respect to what the definition of marriage is….. But if there are differences, I’m certainly going to speak out on those differences when I think it’s in the best interests of our country to have laws that reflect having men and women raise children and form solid marriage bonds.

(via Think Progress)

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Evangelical leader asked Michele Bachmann to drop out of race

According to Politico, evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats asked Michele Bachmann to drop out of the race for GOP presidential candidate and back Rick Santorum.

The conversation happened three days before Vander Plaats personally endorsed Santorum.

Bachmann declined, the source said, noting to Vander Plaats that she has consistently polled ahead of Santorum in the race and still does.
Vander Plaats did not return repeated phone and text messages about the conversation Tuesday.

Evangelical, social conservatives have splintered between Santorum, Bachmann and Rick Perry in this year’s Iowa race. That dilution has left their leaders worried about the diminished influence they’ll have on picking the caucus winner, and ultimately, the Republican nominee.

Bachmann’s campaign has not commented on the conversation but noted that she has been endorsed by a long list of evangelical leaders in the state.

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Ron Paul on The Tonight Show

While appearing Friday on The Tonight Show, Paul basically insulted every other Republican candidate, save for former Utah governor John Huntsman.

Paul said Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann hates Muslims, and indirectly said Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum hates both Muslims and gays.

Note – the clip above is audio only.

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Rick Santorum: US is obese so why do we need food stamps?

Speaking in Iowa, Rick Santorum promised to reduce federal funding for food stamps, saying the nation’s increasing obesity rates make the program unnecessary:

Santorum told the group he would cut the food stamp program, describing it as one of the fastest growing programs in Washington, D.C.

“If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?” Santorum asked.

The cost of the food stamp program has grown not because of overeating, but because more Americans are out of work and wages are down.

Recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that nearly “70 percent households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income,” although many households did benefit from Social Security benefits and other government programs. But a whopping 20 percent of households had no cash income at all last year.

In addition,the food stamp program has been critical for reducing poverty and pumping money into local economies during the down economy, so cutting it now would not only take food out of peoples’ mouth but could slow down the economic recovery.

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Bill Maher on Rick Santorum’s lost culture war

“Rick Santorum is like that Japanese soldier on the island who doesn’t know the war is over, so he’s still fighting against birth control and butt sex.  Plus, Republicans are now mostly a Southern party and if there’s one thing Southerners don’t do well its lose a war and get over it.” – Bill Maher October 21, 2011

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Rick Santorum pledges to defund all contraception

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, currently running in the bottom tier of candidates for the GOP nomination, has pledged that he will end all public funds for contraception:

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country,” the former Pennsylvania senator explained. “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. [Sex] is supposed to be within marriage. It’s supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal… but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen… This is special and it needs to be seen as special.”

Almost all women age 15-44 have used some form of contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Without funding from Medicaid and Title X, “abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.”

More at ThinkProgress.

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Ironic thoughts from Rick Santorum

Recently, current second-tier GOP candidate Rick Santorum made statements saying families should be strengthened and that comes with marriage.

“We shouldn’t have incentives for people not to be married,” the former Pennsylvania senator continued. Santorum, who remains at the bottom of most national polls, added that he also believes couples choose to cohabitate rather than marry, because it is cheaper.

But, as MSN Money reports: “The reality is that marriage has plenty of legal and financial benefits, including tax benefits. Even before Congress changed tax rules in 2001 to deal with the so-called marriage penalty, more married couples got a tax bonus from being married than paid a tax penalty.”

“We need to strengthen the family. We need to have a president who goes out and talks about the importance of marriage, the importance of fathers being committed to their children, the importance of moral values in this country,” Santorum, author of “It Takes a Family,” said.

He also said he believes increasing marriage will boost the economy. “You don’t talk about the family, you don’t talk about strong marriages and mothers and fathers helping to raise children, you can’t have a strong economy,” Santorum said.

The great irony of Mr. Santorum’s position is he stridently campaigns against gay and lesbian families having the same rights and protections a heterosexual family has. Thereby keeping those couples, many of whom have children, from being the “families” he says he wants to encourage.

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Video: GOP Debate Crowd Boos Soldier Serving in Iraq

During the FOX News/Google GOP presidential debate, a YouTube question regarding ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ from Stephen Hill, a soldier serving in Iraq, was directed at Rick Santorum.

Asked Hill: “Do you plan to circumvent the progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?”

In a disgusting display of disrespect, Hill – an active soldier serving in Iraq – was booed by members of the audience at the debate.

Answered Santorum:

“Any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. And the fact that they are making it a point to include it as a provision within the military – that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege, I think tries to inject social policy into the military and the military’s job is to defend our country. We need to give the military, which is all volunteer, the ability to do so in a way that is most efficient and protective of our men and women in uniform and I believe this undermines that ability.”

Megyn Kelly followed up: “So what would you do with soldiers like Stephen Hill. Now he’s out. What would you do as president?”

Said Santorum: “What we’re doing right now is playing social experimentation with our military right now, and that’s tragic. Going forward we would reinstitute that policy…”

In addition to the disrespect shown to an active US soldier serving overseas, Santorum makes the odd statement that “any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.” So I’m guessing he feels no soldier – gay or straight – has the right to have ANY sex while in the military. Also, he refers to allowing gay and lesbian citizens the right that all heterosexual citizens have as a “special privilege.” I’m not sure how more backward that comment could be. Allowing all citizens the SAME rights is hardly doling out ‘special privileges.’

Notice not ONE of the candidates on that stage defended the soldier from those in the crowd booing.

One more thing – imagine how FOX News would play out the scenario of a Democratic crowd booing a US soldier. Think about that.
(via towleroad)