Santorum Continues Distancing Himself From Bush

[JABBS]

President Bush will appear at a Veterans Day event in Pennsylvania on Friday, minus Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA).

It's hard to believe that Santorum -- a lackey who has spent four-plus years pushing the Bush agenda -- is steering clear of the president. But this is not an isolated instance.

"If President Bush was popular, Rick Santorum would be standing right up next to him," said Jay Reiff, campaign manager for Santorum's likely Democratic opponent, Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed Santorum 18 points behind Casey.

As JABBS has been reporting since August, the more Santorum trails Casey in the polls, the more times he tries to suggest that he is not joined at the hip with an increasingly unpopular president.

In August, Santorum said he has raised various questions about the Bush Administration's handling of the Iraq War -- although his own staff couldn't find any examples to back up the claim. In September, Santorum took issue with how Bush had tried to rally Americans behind his Social Security privatization plan.

Then last month, Santorum didn't endorse Harriet Miers, Bush's first nominee for the Supreme Court, and criticized Bush's defense of Miers, which essentially consisted of advertising her faith.

Now, Santorum won't make time in his Veterans Day schedule to be seen with Bush.

It's a far cry from in June, when Bush raised $1.5 million for Santorum at a Pennsylvania fund-raiser.

To steal a line from former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), this is a guy who has carried more water for Bush than Gunga Din, leading him to say some outrageous things about Democrats, such as May 19 on the Senate floor, when he used a reference to Adolf Hitler to describe Democratic complaints about the "nuclear option" to ban judicial filibusters.

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[snowbear]

1. Bwwahhhhahahhhaaa!

[bumblebee1]

19. It could be worse, Ricky.

Bush could be kissing your dog.

[BattyDem]

2. This cracks me up!

Think about it .... this is the guy who brought home a dead fetus for his children to hold - and HE doesn't want to be seen with Bush*! :rofl:

[thefloyd]

3. Santorum brought a dead fetus

home for his children to hold? Are you fucking kidding me?

[BattyDem]

4. No, I'm not.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61804-2005Apr17.html

On edit: I can understand why he and his wife needed some kind of closure, but why involve young children? How could that not be traumatic for them?

[GrpCaptMandrake]

5. Oh, God, here we go!

Any minute now, this thread will be deluged by people saying it's not fair to criticize Santorum for terrorizing his (living) kids with a corpse.

I'm not one of 'em.

And yeah, Santorum's just . . . that . . . weird.

[BattyDem]

6. I'm not trying to start a flame war ... it's just my personal opinion

I just added to my post that I do understand why he and his wife would need to say goodbye and have closure, but I'll never understand why they involved such young children.

Just my opinion. I'm honestly not trying to offend anyone. I apologize if I did. :-)

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. Wasn't criticizing you

Every voter in PA should know these facts.

I'd be inclined to grant a lot more lee-way if Sanctorum hadn't spent his entire legislative career trying to shit on little live babies, and children of every age thereafter who happened not to be as embarassingly wealthy and "pro-life" Repiglican as him.

[BattyDem]

16. I know your weren't, but you raised a good point ...

about others getting defensive and I wanted to make it very clear that I wasn't trying to offend anyone. :-)

I'll never understand how someone can claim to be "pro-life" when it comes to embryos and fetuses, yet not give a shit about living, breathing children. :shrug:

[Erika]

10. A dead baby had no need for the "holding"

The soul had already passed.

[expatriot]

13. moral superiority... desperate attempt at giving creedence to their claim

that they are for "family values."

It is disgusting. It is over-compensation for what they lack in compassion for those born.

[thefloyd]

7. Man

Talk about grandstanding. Maybe when Rick looses he can head to Iraq and hold all the dead Civilians.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

11. Best response to that fact-set I've seen yet!

:headbang: :toast:

[thefloyd]

18. yeah

I don't understand why dems do not hammer the "killing innocent life" Cons like to toss around about abortion. For some reason any innocent civilian killed by a bomb is somehow "collateral damage"

[Erika]

14. Exactly

Maybe he can cradle each of our dead troops in Iraq. This guy is one sick sucker.

[BattyDem]

24. LOL ... that's a terrific response!

:toast:

[expatriot]

8. No... "to hug and kiss" is what I read somewhere. nt.

[BattyDem]

12. When you hug someone, you're holding them closely ... aren't you?

:shrug:

[expatriot]

21. of course it is. just making a point that holding is an understatement.

It's like if we were looking at the Grand Canyon and you said, "It's pretty big" and I said "No, it's enormous!" and you respond "When something is enormous, it's big, isn't it?"

OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT HUGGING IS. I WAS ADDING EMPHASIS. ANOTHER WAY TO ADD EMPHASIS IS WRITING IN ALL CAPS (WHICH IS AGAINST FORUM RULES, BTW)

or maybe it is just against the rules to write the whole post in all caps.

[BattyDem]

22. Oh ... sorry. I get it now. I'm tired and a bit slow.

I thought you were saying that they weren't holding the kid, just kissing and hugging ... oh, never mind - that doesn't make sense. Like I said, I'm tired and I completely misinterpreted your meaning, LOL! :-)

[expatriot]

26. no prob fast-paced text communication is so prone to misinterpretation

I even misinterpreted your misinterpretation! I was just thinking that there was no justifiable excuse to misinterpret it and so that is why I was a wee bit ass-ish in my response.

It took me so long to learn that about email... the reader has no idea what "tone" you are saying things in.

I am going to bed. Join me. You in your bed and me in mine with plenty of space in between.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

15. Ewwwww!

Just "Ewwwwww!"

Like walking through a spider's web in the woods. Makes your whole body twitch in involuntary shudders.

Now where's the emoticon for *that*?

[Erika]

17. Hugging dead babies and our troops are a little weird?

That's today's GOP.

[snowbear]

20. Doesn't seem to mind being with Hill...

[BattyDem]

23. Is that Lieberman with them?

Hillary ... damn! I hope you bathed in disinfectant after this photo was taken! :puke:

[GrpCaptMandrake]

25. Nah

That smirk's tattooed on. Same guy did Dear Leader's.

[MojoXN]

27. Nice try, Rick...

But you're still fucked, you fundie POS. I think that if more PA voters knew that you brought a dead fetus home and forced your kids to handle it, you wouldn't have been elected in the first place.

MojoXN