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Santorum: Conservatives Dropped The Ball
By Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin
Washington — Former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum’s acquisition of political-outsider status since his 2006 loss to Democrat Bob Casey is affording him a lot of bluntness.
“We were unethical,” he said of congressional Republicans involved in the scandals involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the securing of earmarks for special projects in their districts. “Let’s just be frank about it.”
Speaking at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel Saturday, the copious applause he received bespoke the self-criticism abounding in today’s conservative movement. The GOP’s performance on ethics, before the Democrats won Congress and the White House, he said, is especially troubling to him, an erstwhile member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ “Gang of Seven” in 1991, who were involved in fighting the banking scandals.
His extended his criticisms of his party’s record over the past eight years to George W. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the earlier phases of the war in Iraq, before 2007’s surge in troop levels.
“We were incompetent,” he said. “We were simply incompetent.”
And while Republicans complain about the most severe spending increases in the nation’s history ushered in by President Barack Obama, Mr. Santorum said Mr. Bush and other Republicans who supported the financial bailout last fall bear much of the blame.
“It opened up a door that the next president is driving a bulldozer through,” he said.
Much of Mr. Obama’s $787 million spending measure contains elements of what Mr. Santorum called an emerging American version of “European socialism.”
If all of the president’s projects on national health care, forced unionism and the environment come to fruition, Mr. Santorum said, the destruction of the Democrats’ reputation that may come afterward could amount to a Pyrrhic victory for the GOP.
“Hoping your opponent screws up is not a strategy for victory,” he said.
Not that he finds that prospect likely. Mr. Obama’s popularity is respectably high.
“We may have our version of ‘Teflon’ on the other side,” he said, referencing the liberal criticism of Ronald Reagan as a “Teflon president” to whom no embarrassment stuck.
With American conservatism facing what he described as a severe predicament, Mr. Santorum urged the conservative parents and mentors in the audience to guide their young not only into a political life but a cultural life, as well. He said members of the center-right need more encouragement to make movies, write novels and otherwise involve themselves in the arts.
“Politics is only one aspect of governing and living in this country,” he said.
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
“We were unethical,” he said of congressional Republicans involved in the scandals involving former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the securing of earmarks for special projects in their districts. “Let’s just be frank about it.”
Speaking at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel Saturday, the copious applause he received bespoke the self-criticism abounding in today’s conservative movement. The GOP’s performance on ethics, before the Democrats won Congress and the White House, he said, is especially troubling to him, an erstwhile member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ “Gang of Seven” in 1991, who were involved in fighting the banking scandals.
His extended his criticisms of his party’s record over the past eight years to George W. Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the earlier phases of the war in Iraq, before 2007’s surge in troop levels.
“We were incompetent,” he said. “We were simply incompetent.”
And while Republicans complain about the most severe spending increases in the nation’s history ushered in by President Barack Obama, Mr. Santorum said Mr. Bush and other Republicans who supported the financial bailout last fall bear much of the blame.
“It opened up a door that the next president is driving a bulldozer through,” he said.
Much of Mr. Obama’s $787 million spending measure contains elements of what Mr. Santorum called an emerging American version of “European socialism.”
If all of the president’s projects on national health care, forced unionism and the environment come to fruition, Mr. Santorum said, the destruction of the Democrats’ reputation that may come afterward could amount to a Pyrrhic victory for the GOP.
“Hoping your opponent screws up is not a strategy for victory,” he said.
Not that he finds that prospect likely. Mr. Obama’s popularity is respectably high.
“We may have our version of ‘Teflon’ on the other side,” he said, referencing the liberal criticism of Ronald Reagan as a “Teflon president” to whom no embarrassment stuck.
With American conservatism facing what he described as a severe predicament, Mr. Santorum urged the conservative parents and mentors in the audience to guide their young not only into a political life but a cultural life, as well. He said members of the center-right need more encouragement to make movies, write novels and otherwise involve themselves in the arts.
“Politics is only one aspect of governing and living in this country,” he said.
Bradley Vasoli can be reached at bvasoli@thebulletin.us
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