Talk Elections

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, who is becoming less and less coy about his 2012 presidential aspirations, admitted during a luncheon Monday that he was once an ardent earmarker, but now believes they should be banned.

"I feel like I'm at an AA meeting, " Santorum told a room of local Rotary Club members. "Hi, I'm Rick, and I was an earmarker."

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Santorum, a Republican, represented Pennsylvania for 12 years before being ousted by Democrat Bob Casey in 2006. Like many lawmakers, Santorum secured federal funding for projects back home to fulfill local wants. But such earmarks are under increasing fire because of the national debt and fears of government run wild.

The early conversation in New Hampshire, a state that allows presidential hopefuls to test the political waters months (and in this case years) before its first primary election, reflects the immediacy of issues back in Washington, D.C.

Most Republicans, and some Democrats, in Congress today want to get rid of the earmarking process altogether, and Santorum says he'd support that. A vote is expected on Capitol Hill this week.

"I think the American public has spoken and they don't want Congress doing it," Santorum told his New Hampshire audience. "And my feeling is that if the American people believe that this is an element of whether we can trust you or not, we have to show that we want their trust, so I'm absolutely for banning earmarks."

A month ago during a visit in South Carolina, also an early primary state, Santorum took a different tone, saying the U.S. Constitution grants members of Congress the right to appropriate federal funding. Defenders of federal earmarks often say they know their districts better than federal bureaucrats do.

Santorum's visit to New Hampshire this week is his seventh. He is holding public and private meetings with local leaders as he attempts to raise his profile ahead of other big Republican names like Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney touching down in the state.

Santorum also has been to Iowa, the first state to select its presidential nominees through a caucus.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/mc-2012-santorum-nh-20101129,0,6636345.story

Santorum calls WikiLeaks founder a terrorist

MANCHESTER, N.H.—Possible Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told New Hampshire voters Tuesday that the founder of the WikiLeaks website should be prosecuted as a terrorist for posting classified national security documents.

"We haven't gone after this guy, we haven't tried to prosecute him, we haven't gotten our allies to go out and lock this guy up and bring him up on terrorism charges," Santorum said of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "What he's doing is terrorism, in my opinion."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said WikiLeaks acted illegally in posting the material and that the Obama administration was taking "aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information."

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, spoke to the Goffstown Rotary Club during his seventh trip to New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary. He said the leaked U.S. diplomatic memos have exposed a sense of growing urgency and frustration across the Middle East over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which he accused President Barack Obama of ignoring.

"This administration seems to be OK with a nuclear Iran. They're doing nothing to stop it," he said, adding that Obama should be focused on Iran instead of trying to ram a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia through Congress.

Obama has said that failing to ratify the arms pact could jeopardize improving relations with Russia and send a mixed signal to Iran about the strength of the international front against its nuclear program.

Iran will discuss its nuclear program at an international meeting in Geneva next week with the European Union's foreign affairs chief and officials from the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

Santorum, who served two terms in Congress before being ousted by Democrat Bob Casey in 2006, said he's been pleased with the reception he's getting in New Hampshire as he decides whether to run for president.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/11/30/santorum_encouraged_by_nh_reception/

oh dear Lord

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorum_(sexual_neologism)

;)

Santorum is an idiot and says stupid things.
What else is new?

lol

Zomzg, terrists!

I even noticed the smirk characteristic of a very bad guy in American criminal history. Accident?

Great picture!

Yeah, he looks like he is about to star at a laxative commercial.

Assange a terrorist? More like a freedom fighter.

Not that it is relevant, Ted Bundy had much the same smirk.

You people will stop at nothing. Seriously. It's very sad.

I agree with you Phil. If anything Santorum reminds me more of Al Bundy.

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The rank-and-file of the GOP seem to like that. It shows how "down-to-Earth" he is even if Corporate America is stuffing the pockets of the candidate, and "common sense" even if it violates the sort of knowledge that effete types  get before or entering the University.  

terror :O

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Santorum may not be a lot of things (electable, etc.) but he is a snappy dresser.

Gingrich says Assange "should be in jail for the rest of his life":

http://www.gop12.com/2010/12/gingrich-praises-hillary-of-wikileaks.html

To imprison, torture, and/or kill Julian Assange will be the rallying cry of imperialists and nationalists throughout the criminal government of the US.

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Intelligent, well spoken, attractive, dapper dresser, lovely family, impressive education,  politically experienced,  but does he possess the royal jelly?

Is his sense of fashion really that good? He happened to be wearing the same suit when I saw him a few weeks ago.

Oh yes...

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:P

Santorum is an utter dumbass. What's new?

Well, his wife is attractive.

That's not his wife.  That's his daughter.

Which one of the four?

Wasn't there some big discussion thread about that pic back in 2006, in which BRTD said that he was glad the kid was crying or something like that, and it sparked some heated debate?

It probably wasn't a BRTD thread. A lot of Santorum haters here - proving that they're really men, laughing at a little girl crying - couldn't wipe the mile wide smile off their faces.

If Santorum was crying, it would be one thing to gloat. I understand people really dislike him and while I wouldn't like them celebrating, it would be far more understandable. Santorum's young daughter should be totally off limits but you can't get that point across to classless people.

Phil is right for once.  Children should be left alone.  The Democrat Party doesn't abide by this rule.

Yeah, I agree. Attacking a child for being - god forbid - sad that her father lost is just cold and heartless. You can disagree with someone all you want, but you've got to understand that defeat is hard for a person, and even harder for a family in many cases. Politics is a messy field, but people should at least try to be civil when it comes to stuff like this...

FYI   Glenn Beck openly mocked Sasha Obama on air.  

Phil, did you express your outrage when someone on this forum made fun of the Palin baby, Trig, who has Down syndrome?

I did.

Santorum is not the only politician with children. 

Uh, if I saw it, I absolutely voiced my outrage. I know I spoke up when that asshole Einzige had an image in his signature of Palin holding Trig as some type of robot. Are you seriously suggesting that I only defend Santorum/his family? Have you not seen my several other arguments on the forum, defending Palin (even though I barely like her)?


You really are a joke.


And he and Rush (for what he said about Chelsea Clinton) are disgusting.

You were trying to suggest that I only care about Santorum's kids being attacked.


I don't question anyone's "right" to be here (though I'll note that no one has a "right" to be here). I question why they are here if they troll, spew nothing but rhetoric, etc.

Everyone here agrees about nkpatel, by the way.

Well, not quite everyone.  From your nkpatel thread..........

phknrocket is almost universally recognized as a troll. Other than that, one person has defended him. He's a joke to the rest of the forum.

Phil, I really do not wish to be argumentative, however, I must take issue with your preceding logic.

A total of 12 forum members posted on your nkpatel thread, including yourself and myself, 9 of whom, including yourself, had issues with nkpatel, 3 of whom, including myself, did not.

This means that a total of 9 forum members have expressed disaprooval of nkpatel, out of a total forum membership of 2289.

Therefore, with 0.39% of forum membership expressing a negative opinion of nkpatel, you cannot say with any degree of certainty, as you have said, that nkpatel is a joke to the rest of the forum.  The rest of the forum has not expressed an opinion one way or the other.  You simply have by far too insufficient data to make a definitive statement in this matter.

I don't wish to be argumentative either. Let's just settle this right now, buddy: you are an even bigger joke than nkpatel.

Congrats, Winfield!

So those are the tactics you resort to when you obviously have no effective points of discussion to raise.

Congrats, Phil! 

There's nothing I love more than seeing Northeastern Republicans and the Democrat Party eat their own.

Beck wasn't making fun of Obama's kids if I am remembering correctly.  He was making fun of Obama, who deserves to be insulted at every moment.

hack