I don’t think Rick Santorum backed the Democrat Specter in 2010, did he? I know he turned against George Zimmermann in FL without knowing the facts though.
“”Republican Presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has taken heat from Presidential rivals for his 2004 endorsement of Arlen Specter over the more conservative Pat Toomey in the Republican Presidential primary. Santorum has responded that his endorsement was based upon both the electability of Specter in the general election and a promise from the Republican turned Democrat to support Bush judicial nominees.
But 2010 filings to the Federal Election Commission filings show the former Santorum was supporting Specter well after 2004.
2009 FEC filings from Rick Santorum’s PAC, America’s Foundation, show that Santorum gave $5000 to his former Senate colleague during the critical tidal wave election for Republicans. The donation was made before Specter switched parties. After the switch, Santorum’s PAC donation was returned by the Specter campaign.””
To me the Zimmerman position is typical Santorum, not because he came out for Trayvon, but because your instincts tell you that he doesn’t care, he just wanted to sound morally decisive and powerful and in this case he guessed wrong, I think that he was just guessing about which side was the best to take, and that the real importance was in sounding a particular way.
I think Specter is a connection to the Santorum behind the facade, to the original Santorum in politics, when Santorum was a pro-abortion rino, mocking Reagan supporters as right wingers and running as a “progressive conservative”
“”On “Face the Nation” Sunday on CBS, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum explained that his view of the Trayvon Martin shooting differed significantly from the one held by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich was critical of President Barack Obama’s reaction, but Santorum placed the blame on accused shooter George Zimmerman’s mental state.
“Well, you know, obviously, I’m not privy to what’s going on in someone’s mind,” Santorum said. “Obviously, in my opinion, someone … has a very sick mind who would pursue someone like this. This is clearly a heinous act. You know, there are a lot of people who have a lot of distorted views of reality. It’s a tragic, tragic case.”
“And my heart goes out to the parents, too. I can’t imagine what they’re suffering, losing their son in such a horrific way. All I would say is that, whatever the motive is, it was a malicious one, and a very, very tragic one.”
Santorum suggested the politics weren’t as important as the need to “be supportive” of Martin’s family in the wake of his tragic death.
“All I can say is that, again, there are a lot of people who have very perverted views of reality and obviously have, as we see, people who do horrible things for seemingly senseless reasons,” Santorum said.””
John Cornyn was the head RNSC and he supported Specter. He was heard raking a staffer over the coals when Toomey won.