Santorum voted for Medicare Part D - (Bigger than Obama care) Santorum voted for Medicare prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D, though critical of it now. It is the largest expansion of entitlement spending since President Lyndon Johnson, which now costs taxpayers more than $60 billion a year and has almost $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Santorum’s Operation Good Neighbor. Instead, the foundation spent most of its money to run itself, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for fundraising, administration and office rental paid to Santorum’s political allies. Over 60%, $1.5 million dollars of the contributions used to fill the pockets of aides, fundraisers, etc.

The charity also had significant overlap with the senator’s campaigns and his work on Capitol Hill. Among the leading donors to the foundation were Pennsylvania development and finance firms that had donated to his election efforts and had interests that Santorum had supported in the Senate.

Before it folded in 2007, the foundation raised $2.58 million, with 39 percent of that donated directly to groups helping the needy. By industry standards, such philanthropic groups should be donating nearly twice that, from 75 to 85 percent of their funds.

Santorum voted 5 times to raise the debt ceiling, increasing the debt by $4.7 trillion dollars. He sponsored a $50 million dollar bill to build an indoor rain forest.

Santorum supported, the Benedict Arnold of the Republican party, Arlen Specter for reelection. Specter once a Republican switched to be a democrat. Specter became the culminating and final vote for ObamaCare. For you conservatives out there, Specter then went on to call for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. ObamaCare depending on the source states that it will cost between $400 billion and $1.2 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office states that the cost will be $829 billion with job losses totaling around 1.6 million. All because Santorum willingly supported the Specter. In fact, read the PA articles he was on a crusade to get Specter reelected.

The Chewbacca Defense? I like the humor but disagree that the White House has been defensive on the price of gas. President Obama has been on the offensive for several weeks but it is difficult to get past the noise coming from four GOP presidential wannabees who seem to think drill, baby drill is the be all and end all of energy.

I do agree with FR's assessment on yesterday's poll numbers. They are inconsistent and make little sense which means either the pollster questions were push-pull or leading in some other manner. Had a pollster call last week asking similar questions in this order. Did I blame President Obama for the rising gas prices--yes or no? Which of the following do I think is the cause of rising gas prices, pick only one: Wall Street oil speculators, middle east unrest or big oil companies? After answering the questions, I pointed out to the pollster that their poll questions provided a pre-disposed bias by first suggesting that the president could be to blame and then offering the true culprits. Pollsters do not like being criticized.

GOP's Big Day in Alabama, Mississippi and Hawaii. Who will win AL and MS is anyone's guess. It's a 3-way tie. What happens if Mitt Romney wins AL or MS? Will Santorum or Gingrich drop out of the race? Not likely. How will Rick and Newt spin a Romney win? That will be fun to watch. How will Mitt spin a loss? That will be fun to watch.

Whatever the outcome, tonight we get to hear them speak again touting their wondrous virtues without ever telling voters their plan, their vision beyond it's the opposite of President Obama's. Let's hope Newt and Rick decide to use a teleprompter like Mitt does so they stay focused instead of rambling all around the barn to get to the door. Newt will talk about drill for oil versus algae and $2.50 gas versus $10 gas--ignoring Bill O'Reilly's words that politicians who promise $2 gas is B.S. Mitt will give the y'all and grits remarks before launching into what he thinks today but maybe not tomorrow. Rick will preach values and the promised land if only voters pick him.

Good luck, fellas.

If you read this before, sorry for the repeat but gremlins as well as collapsers are out today. I posted it on the initial First Thoughts only to have that entire article and comments deleted and replaced probably because gremlins made the first one incomplete. Then I tried to repost on the new FT and only half posted. Considering the gremlins and other events on FR this morning--if I were any of the GOP candidates, I'd be worried about tonight.

The PAC created by Santorum that was supposed to fund other Republicans instead seemed to mostly pay for the lifestyle of Santorum and those around him. The America's Foundation PAC showed that only 18 percent of its money went to fund political candidates, less -- and typically far less -- than any other PACs. What America's Foundation did spend a lot on with what looked like everyday expenses, including 66 trips to the Starbucks in Santorum's then-hometown of Leesburg, Va., multiple fast-food outings and expenditures at Walmart, Target and Giant supermarkets. Campaign finance experts said the PAC's expenses -- paid for by donations from wealthy businessmen and lobbyists -- were "unconventional," at best and arguably not legal.

Santorum voted to cut billions in student loans that would have helped the middle class students afford college, but he voted to give oil companies an additional $2 billion in new tax breaks.

What else did Santorum do while in congress and living in PA. I'm mean VA. Rick was improperly spending tax dollars on HIS family. He took $100,000 from a struggling PA public school district to pay for his children’s “cyber” education program. Unfortunately, Rick and his family were living in suburban Virginia then, so they were not entitled to those funds. And when exposed in the press, Rick wouldn’t pay back the money, so the school district had to go to court to get it back — which cost us even MORE money.Pretty hypocritical, since Rick won his first congressional race by attacking the incumbent for living in VA instead of PA.

Rick Santorum was named among the most corrupt politicians in 2005-2006 by a Washington watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Watch The Gang of Four Starring Rick Santorum it depicts corruption.

Santorum turning his back on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Watch Santorum's vote against Hurricane Katrina help. youtube.com/watch?v=xutxQugsoZs

Let's remind our friends in the Gulf states and around the country how Santorum voted against sending aide to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Probably the most unjust is Santorum’s involment with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist who went to prison for bribing Washington politicians. Look at the Tan family and their staggering array of human rights abuses on the Commwealth of Northern Marianas Islands. The Tan family ran sweatshops on the islands and Santorum provided legislative cover for the truly rancid sweatshops, their human rights violations and almost fathomless moral quagmire of forced prostitution and abortions

Funny how the MSM anointed ol Mitt from the get go. The guy sucks, so what do the masses do? anoint another loser like Obama, I remember a very viable candidate named Ross Perot saying , you hear that sucking sound thats all your jobs getting sucked overseas, no one listened he would have straighned out this country, now we have another candidate, honest as the driven snow, not bought and paid for by the elite lobbyist and banks, tells you the truth but no one listens and thats shame on all you, this mans a threat for the corruption going on in our government and will pull the teat out of their mouths, so go ahead select yeah right we select no one the games rigged bigger than stuttgart, problem is the sheeple havent figured it out yet.

Being from PA Santorum is a crook, liar and thief and we couldnt wait to overwhelmingy vote his sorry azz out of office, look no further than the k street fiasco, hes the epitomy of a lap dog to the elite.

The south!

Great!

The most religious, lowest educated, poorest, fattest, most diabetic states in the Union!

Ought to be pretty easy to scare/frighten/mislead THAT demographic into voting Republican.

For some reason, they always do!

The “South Will Rise Again” ... but hopefully not at a substantial cost to the whole country. I am totally amazed at what is presented as “Southern Conservative” political thinking and I refuse to accept it as a whole area of the country being illogical and irrational and just totally blind to reality. There are legitimate differences in political positions based on preferences for different issues - arguing immigration, taxes, government spending, women’s rights, gay rights, family values, trade issues, financial reform, healthcare reform, political reform and so on are all valid debates, however, to let manipulative aggressive appeals to biases, prejudices, fears, emotions and loyalties destroy rational thinking is ridiculous. To be “pawns” in “the money’s” game of politics is not only self-defeating it is just ignorant.

We saw Bush-Cheney totally focused on a private agenda to benefit “the few”, their strong supporters, while they gave the majority, including the total middle-class, nothing but apathy, the costs and an abundance of subterfuge to rationalize and deceive. They were fully backed by the total Republican Party as they proved beyond any doubt that the “trickle down” theory is a total fraud only making the wealthy wealthier and soliciting political support. Since then the Republican / Tea Party has stubbornly blocked and faulted all efforts while withholding bipartisan cooperation, arrogantly fighting only for the interests of “the few”, like protecting the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy. The likes of Norquist, Cheney, Rove and others collect huge sums from “the few” and aggressively use them to coerce and intimidate their own to assure unity behind “the few’s” interests and to squelch individual consciences. They recruit “puppet” candidates who will perform exactly how “their strings are pulled” and they use their vast resources through SuperPacs and others to con the people and manipulate public opinion. These aren’t idle criticisms of a biased “liberal” but rather observations that alienated a long-term registered Republican. It is said that the current Republican / Tea Party is not capable of responsibly governing as their loyalty and concentration is completely distracted ... the last twelve years have proven that to be true.

Reducing taxes, controlling government spending and having “smaller government” are all worthwhile goals ... but they won’t solve the drastic problems we have as, contrary to the propaganda, they are not what caused the problems. What caused our problems is the aggressive exploitation by “the few”, encouraged by permissive and co-responsible politicians, that caused repeated failures in the economy always benefiting only “the few” and costing everyone else. The proof is in the reality that we are continually becoming more of a two-class society with “the few” (1%) competing in having it all and the majority (99%) struggling to survive. What we need is a government of honest and responsible representatives who are capable of bipartisan cooperation and who represent the majority, including the total middle-class, North and South as well as East and West. The only way that can ever be accomplished is by the people rejecting the propaganda, refusing to insultingly be taken for granted or to be “pawns” for “the few”, rejecting the con and along with it firmly rejecting the “puppet” politicians. Then “the money” will be ineffective and the people, North, South, East and West, will have a chance.

You might be a redneck... y'all live in mississippi, and think fer sure that the presidant is an evil muslim.

....if y'all live in duh south and hate government programs, except fer yer food stamps that ya earned

Please White man do not nominate Rick Goober Sanitorium who wants us all to convert to that pagan catholic religion he can't beat Pres Obama that would mean Four more years of Republican hate radio and listening to Whites Whine like a little girls If Pres Obama farts I cant take four more years of your Whinning.

I am from the South and have always been proud of it. We, like everywhere else in this country, have our share of dumb asses. Maybe even more. However, no one has ever bailed out one southern state like we did Michigan or the wall street banking and investment community. I guess maybe there are dumb asses all over.

Reason #1: Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum could split up the anti-Romney vote.

I wonder why it is Chuck Todd fells compelled to characterize any who is not voting for Romney as an anit-Romney vote?

I live in the south and enjoy it and there are a lot of very good people here. But the culture is very racist among the whites AND blacks. People are usually not overt but it is all code talk. Many many whites here will never accept Obama based on his being a LIBERAL and a BLACK, or consider voting for any black man. That is just the way it is and probably always will be

The president's approval rating now stands at 41 percent, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released Monday, a nine-point drop from his position just one month ago. The Times/CBS survey comes on the heels of a Washington Post/ABC News poll that put Mr. Obama's job approval at 46 percent, down four points from last month......Why is everybody picking on the POTUS?

Yeah, forget the polls...except when they support your position.

It is scary though that over 40% of people from Al and Miss think the President is a Muslim, and another 20% aren't sure? Thank-you fox news for all the stories, innuendo's and hint's you have dropped, that you really can't trust that the President is a Christian. Fox did a great job, making sure their listeners are the least informed people in this country! And all you Limbaugh defenders, Did you speak up for the Dixie Chicks, with free speech calls? If not your hypocrites!

Dennis-Columbus- you make good points. However, I would point out that there are very few states that pay more into the federal government than is taken out. California and New York carried most of the country for years. I will look up Ohio because I confess I am unaware of its positive or negative impact on the budget. In terms of natural disasters you are correct but I think that is a federal policy that is meant to be in force everywhere. I think we did New Jersey last year.

Make sure you copy textually the Alabama Immigration Law, you freaking racist!!