PA’s Problem, But the Nation Should Worry

New York Times Headline this morning: Running Hard, Senate Power (Rick Santorum-R-PA) Seeks a New Image. The NYT said, “Polls show that Robert P. Casey Jr., the state treasurer, holds a comfortable lead over Mr. Santorum — in a Quinnipiac University poll, Mr. Casey is in the lead by 18 points.” However Rick Santorum is dancing as fast as he can to try to make Pennsylvanians forget who he is and what he believes in. Lest anyone forgets: Rick Santorum has voted with President Bush 98% of the time. He’s a religious fanatic conservative, he rubber-stamps every Republican initiative, and he has made some of the most outrageous statements ever to come out of the US Senate. Santorum’s voting record: Rated 25% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record Rated 25% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes. Rated 27% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. Rated 100% by CATO, indicating a pro-free trade voting record Rated 0% by APHA, indicating an anti-public health voting record. Rated 0% by SANE, indicating a pro-military voting record. Rated 0% by APHA, indicating an anti-public health voting record. Rated 0% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. Santorum said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." On May 18th, 2005 he expounded on the Senate filibuster fight and equated those who were against changing the way judges are confirmed with Hitler. He said. “It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942, 'I'm in Paris. How date you invade me. How dare you bomb my City? It's mine.'” On September 6, 2005, Santorum said regarding Hurricane Katrina: "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." He believes the world and everything in it was created 6,000 years ago and he admires the fanatic Opus Dei cult. In an April 7th, 2005 Associated Press interview Santorum said that “marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality...it's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing.” He has publicly fought for capping pain and suffering lawsuits at $250,000. But his wife sued her chiropractor in a pain and suffering case for $500,000 and won $350,000. I said on April 23, 2006 “Santorum has six children. He enrolled his school-age children in a school that was open only to Pennsylvania residents, even though the Santorums live in Virginia. He only removed the kids from the Pennsylvania school when a school board member raised a stink about the illegal arrangement.” Now he’s involved in another controversy about his residency. The NYT reported this morning: “He (Rick Santorum) found himself mired in controversy over his residency in recent weeks, with his detractors highlighting the fact that while he maintains a modest residence in suburban Pittsburgh, his family lives in the Virginia suburbs when the Senate is in session, which is the majority of the year. Critics argued it was not unlike the living arrangements he denounced in his 1990 House race against Representative Doug Walgren, the Democrat he defeated.” On Thursday, June 22, 2006, Santorum said, "We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons.” So, once again, I must repeat the words of former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey who wondered whether Santorum is "Latin for asshole.”