Rick Santorum Endorsed Pro Abortion Arlen Specter For President in 1995

From Daniel Larson:

“There are clearly more Republicans who are pro-choice.. up until now, I am the only person willing to take on the fringe.” - Arlen Specter, whose pro-abortion-rights position was a centerpiece of his campaign

Santorum’s 2004 endorsement of Arlen Specter during his primary fight against Pat Toomey is well-known, but what I didn’t realize was that Santorum had previously endorsed Specter during the 1996 cycle (via Trinko):

And as for the pro-abortion-rights presidential candidate Santorum endorsed, when Specter launched a long-shot bid for president in 1995, Santorum — his fellow Pennsylvanian — was one of his few high-profile endorsements.

The story treats the earlier endorsement as repayment to Specter for supporting Santorum’s Senate bid the year before, but that’s not much of an excuse. Santorum might try to defend the 2004 endorsement of the incumbent Specter in the Senate primary as an example of being an obedient partisan. Reliable partisans were expected to support incumbents faced by primary challengers, and Santorum fell in line. That’s not admirable, but it is not all that surprising. No one can say the same of his endorsement of a moderate Republican’s pro-choice protest candidacy whose main reason for being was to try to marginalize social conservatives.

Link:

• In 1995, Santorum Endorsed Arlen Specter for President

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From  Katrina Trinko at National Review:

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports:

And as for the pro-abortion-rights presidential candidate Santorum endorsed, when Specter launched a long-shot bid for president in 1995, Santorum — his fellow Pennsylvanian — was one of his few high-profile endorsements.

For Specter, who later became a Democrat, his pro-abortion-rights position was a centerpiece of his campaign. Specter believed that anti-abortion activists were a “fringe” group hijacking the Republican party.

“There are clearly more Republicans who are pro-choice,” Specter told Newsday’s Susan Page. “Up until now, I am the only person willing to take on the fringe.” After Specter dropped out of the race, he led an ill-fated movement to change the anti-abortion provision in the Republican party platform.

Santorum was effectively returning a favor by endorsing Specter despite his aggressive pro-abortion-rights views. Specter had supported Santorum’s 1994 Senate campaign.

Full piece, which includes the details on how Santorum was one of the Republican senators who voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (an appointment that figures like Rush Limbaugh warned would lead to her becoming a Supreme Court nominee), here...

Link:

• Santorum Endorsed Specter’s Presidential Bid

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Seven Minutes Of Rick Santorum Talking About How Great Mitt Romney Is

And from BuzzFeed, in 2008 Rick Santorum endorsed Mitt Romney and said that he is a "true conservative.":

"And what I know I have seen over the past 9, 10 months now, is a guy that  has gone through that pressure cooker.  Who has developed a passion.  Who understands why he is a conservative,  and understands the issues, how they weave together, and what.. America.. conservatives are about traditional values, traditional way of American life, and I think he understands that. It's not just in his head any more.  It's in his heart...
He's proved to me that this is someone, that in his heart, he told me last night that he's gonna fight to the end.  That this is for the soul of the Republican party.  And it is..."  - Rick Santorum on Mitt Romney

Links:

• Rick Santorum In 2008: Romney Is A "True Conservative"
• Seven Minutes Of Rick Santorum Talking About How Great Mitt Romney Is

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Rick Santorum Campaigns for Mitt Romney in 2008: "Mitt Romney is that voice, is the man, is the time.."

Related:

• Mitt Romney Told Catholic Hospitals to Administer Abortion Pills
• Arlen Specter: Dump Obama for Hillary

Colbert Super PAC Attacks Mitt Romney

100,000 Wanted to Facebook "Like" Newt Gingrich Onto Virginia Ballot

Posted on Saturday, December 24, 2011 9:49:29 PM by Jim Robinson

I just started a new facebook page as a place for grassroots conservatives to urge Virginia to allow the leading Republican contender for the presidency onto the Virginia ballot. Gingrich is the Republican leader nationwide and in Virginia! It's absolutely ludicrous, if not criminal, for Virginia to deny the conservative base and tea party favorite a spot on the ballot while they promote their elite ruling class RINO!

Do not allow Virginia to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of conservative grassroots voters who would mark their ballots for Newt Gingrich! Adding insult to injury, they don't even allow write-ins on their ballots!
It truly is a one man election (disregarding the Ron Paul nutcake). You can vote for anyone you wish in Virginia as long as his name is Mitt Romney.

We need to write or call the Republican Party of Virginia to register our outrage and if you are a facebook user, please visit and "Like" the "Newt Gingrich on Virginia Ballot" page.

Thank you all very much, and Merry Christmas!!

• Facebook page: Newt Gingrich on Virginia Ballot
• Source: Free Republic - One hundred thousand people wanted to fb "Like" Newt Gingrich onto the Virginia ballot

Mitt Romney Challenges Rick Perry To $10,000 Bet At Iowa Debate

(Huffington Post) Mitt Romney is tired of hearing about the change made to his book that touts Massachusetts' CommonWealth Care as a "model for the nation." But Rick Perry keeps bringing it up. So Romney proposed a $10,000 wager -- perhaps unprecedented in presidential debates, although we'll wait for Gingrich to provide the historical background.

Sadly, Perry didn't want to take the bet, so we never got to learn what the terms were exactly. Instead, Romney quoted from the chapter in which he said that every state should have the opportunity to make its own health care plan.

My colleague Ryan Grim quips: "How many people have you met who casually make $10,000 bets?" It's pretty "1 percent," if you ask me.

To put the amount in perspective, according to a tweet from West Wing Report, "The $10K bet Romney offered to make represents three months pay for most Americans."

Conservatives didn't hold back on jokes directed at the wealthy Romney. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review tweeted that "Romney promises that his butler will 'personally deliver' $10,000 check if he loses," which was quickly retweeted by RedState's Erick Erickson.

Jonathan Martin, who covers the GOP race for Politico, also pounced. "Who among us doesn't wager $10K at a time?" he tweeted.

Link:

• Mitt Romney Challenges Rick Perry To $10,000 Bet At Iowa Debate 

Romney's $10,000 bet highlights personal wealth

STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — He could have bet a beer. Or maybe a steak dinner.
But during a heated dispute with Rick Perry during Saturday night's debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Mitt Romney extended his right hand and asked the Texas governor if he'd wager $10,000 to settle a dispute over his healthcare record. The rich bet instantly provided Romney's opponents with new ammunition for their charge that he's out of touch with middle-class America.

"I'm just saying, you're for individual mandates, my friend," Perry said to Romney.

"You've raised that before, Rick, and you're simply wrong," Romney responded, extending his hand toward Perry. "Rick, I'll tell you what: 10,000 bucks?"

Perry laughed it off: "I'm not in the betting business."

It was an exchange that spanned less than a minute. But it's one that likely won't soon be forgotten.

Democrats and Romney's Republican challengers pounced almost immediately.

"I want to know if he has $10,000 in his pocket," Newt Gingrich's spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said after the debate.

Romney's personal wealth and privileged background have long been viewed a potential political vulnerability.

He's the son of a former governor and made a fortune leading a venture capital company in Massachusetts.

Romney disclosed earlier in the year that his personal wealth is estimated at between $190 million and $250 million.

But as a presidential candidate in recent months, he's made a point of courting middle-class America.

"I didn't grow up poor. And if somebody is looking for someone who's grown up with that background, I'm not the person," Romney said during the debate, noting that his father was poor at one point in his life. "They made sure we had jobs when we were growing up. They made sure we didn't spend money foolishly."

That did little to stop the Democratic National Committee from using the $10,000 bet to fuel an immediate political attack. In a statement, the DNC said $10,000 is almost three times more than what an average family spends on groceries in a year and more than a year's worth of mortgage payments for the typical American home purchased today.

Link:

• Romney's $10,000 bet highlights personal wealth

Romneys on Abortion 2002

Jay Bookman: "Romney the only Republican even conceivable as president"

A liberal likes Mitt:

"Mitt Romney is the only person in the GOP presidential race — and I include Rick Perry in that number — who is qualified by experience, intelligence and character to serve as president of the United States...

But speaking as a GOP outsider, while Romney is the candidate most likely to defeat Barack Obama, I still hope the party nominates him. After a string of disconcerting events, I’d like to be reassured by a sign of basic good judgment from my fellow Americans on the right. I’d like to see a recognition that they’re nominating a potential president, not a protest candidate selected because he or she best expresses the anger, frustration and resentments of the GOP base..."

• Link