Here are nine other things you ought to know about Santorum:
As a young lawyer, he worked at the Pittsburgh law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart where he represented the World Wrestling Federation. In is most high-profile case, he argued that professional wrestling was not technically a sport, and therefore wasn’t subject to federal steroid regulations.
In 2008, he endorsed his current rival, Mitt Romney, for the GOP presidential nomination. In a press release, he called Romney “the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear.” Last Sunday on Fox News, Santorum described his 2008 move as “a calculated political decision,” based on his opposition to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and his belief at the time that Romney had the best chance of winning Super Tuesday. “I would have loved to have Mike Huckabee out there, but I made the political judgment, right or wrong.”
He is perhaps one of the most reviled politicians among gay marriage advocates following a 2003 interview in which he said same-sex marriage was a gateway to condoning bestiality and pedophilia. Infuriated by the remarks, sex columnist Dan Savage held a contest with readers, asking them for suggestions for how to define “Santorum” as a lewd term.
He characterizes U.S. anti-terrorism efforts only as the “War With Radical Islam,” rather than the more common moniker of “War on Terror.” In a November debate he said, “We are not fighting a war on terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic. We are fighting a war against radical Islam... What all the radical Islamic leaders are saying is just ‘Wait America out. America is weak, they will not stand for the fight… We will be the strong horse in the region.’ President Obama, by making political decision after political decision about timelines and constraints on rules of engagement, has validated everything these radical Islamists are saying.”
He is the only GOP candidate on the trail to endorse reforming the tax code to promote heterosexual marriage and child rearing. Santorum wants to triple the child tax credit, which is currently $1,000 per child, and eliminate parts of the tax code which hike taxes on married couples. His broader corporate and individual tax reform ideas are more in line with the other GOP candidates. He would cut the top corporate rate on U.S. companies from 35 percent to 17.5 percent, but exempt companies that manufacture goods in the United States. He would eliminate four of the six personal income tax brackets, keeping only the 10 and 28 percent brackets.
Despite a strong showing in Iowa, his campaign war chest is much smaller than the other candidates. Santorum has raised $1.2 million compared to Mitt Romney’s $32.2 million, Rick Perry’s $17.2 million, Ron Paul’s $12.8 million, and Newt Gingrich’s $2.9 million. He discussed black people as recipients of federal entitlement dollars, telling a crowd in Sioux City, Iowa, last weekend that he does not want to “make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money.” He responded to criticism on Fox News saying, “I don’t single out any group of people… I condemn all forms of racism. This is just someone trying to cause trouble.”
He wrote the partial-birth abortion ban legislation that passed the Senate in 2003, which the Supreme Court upheld in 2007.
He has come under fire in recent weeks from GOP rivals Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry for demanding earmarks for Pennsylvania during his tenure in Congress. In an ad, Perry accused Santorum of voting for more than $1 billion in earmarks during his 16 years in Congress — which Santorum does not refute, and in fact, defends. “I don’t regret going out at the time and making sure that the people of Pennsylvania, who I was elected to represent, got resources back into the state after spending money,” Santorum said on NBC’s Meet the Press last weekend.
Santorum and his wife, Karen Garver Santorum, have seven children. Their daughter, Isabella “Bella” Maria, born in 2008, was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a serious genetic disorder which is fatal before birth in 90 percent of cases. In 1996, their son Gabriel Michael was born prematurely and lived for only two hours. Karen Santorum wrote a book about the experience: Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum. In it, she writes that the couple brought the deceased infant home from the hospital and introduced the dead child to their living children as “your brother Gabriel” and slept with the body overnight before returning it to the hospital.
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9 Things To Know About Rick Santorum
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Originally Posted by livin_in_the_Son
Irresponsible Republicans are how we got stuck with BO in the first place...
can I buy a vowel? Something is missing...
before then!
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