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Subscribe to RSSBARNESVILLE, Ohio -- Rick Santorum on Saturday said the entire Republican Party should voice its support for Senate candidate Todd Akin of Missouri -- including the top of the party's presidential ticket.
After holding a rally for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney here in the heart of Ohio's coal country, Santorum told NBC News that an Akin victory is essential for the GOP to regain control of the Senate and repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. The only way for that to happen, Santorum said, is for the GOP establishment to give the embattled Akin its full-fledged support.
"The entire Republican Party should stand up and say, 'You know what? He's our candidate, it's too important for the future of our country not to have a majority of the Senate in this upcoming election," Santorum said when asked if Romney needs to publicly support Akin. "I'm hoping everybody will join in and support the cause."
The former Pennsylvania senator and unsuccessful president candidate joined South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint in announcing their support of Akin on Wednesday.
"I don't know what the Republican establishment -- what their objective is, but if they want to repeal Obamacare, we better hold the Senate. And to hold the Senate, we better win Missouri," Santorum said.
Akin has taken heat from both sides of the aisle after using the term "legitimate rape" and saying women have a biological way of preventing unwanted pregnancies while he gave a now-notorious explanation of his views on abortion.
"My feeling is that we can win the presidency, but if we don't have 51 senators, we're not going to be able to repeal Obamacare," said Santorum.
Romney's former rival has been active campaigning for the presidential candidate in the Buckeye State. It's a primary Santorum nearly won on Super Tuesday, and his support was particularly strong in this part of the state, heavy with blue-collar workers and not far from his home of Pittsburgh.
Despite recent polls showing Romney needing to make up significant ground in Ohio, the former senator remained optimistic about the state turning red. "I'm confident that Mitt Romney will win Ohio, will when the presidency," he said. "People here understand how dangerous this president is."
That danger, Santorum said, stems from the president's energy policy, which he claims makes the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil. It is a message the Romney campaign hopes will resonate in this coal-rich part of the state. It is here where Republicans go to hammer Obama for waging a "war on coal."
"This is a president that is going to drive this country to economic ruin because of a phony ideology that, you know, somehow or another he has to control the seas rising and falling," Santorum said.
While Santorum has been traveling as a Romney surrogate, he also has been holding events in places like Iowa independent of the presidential race. It has fueled speculation that he could be eyeing another run.
Asked about his political future, Santorum would only say that he will be happy in 2016 to continue his work as a Romney surrogate. "I'll be happy to come back and campaign for Gov. Romney in four years," he said.
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Is it me or does this actually sound like a gender war? The GOP hates women
.
They certainly have few uses for them, that's apparent.
Witness: The Muttering Lady on "Morning Joe".
Now just a minute folks. I recall the weeks before the convention that Tampa/St. Pete were worried about having enough hookers and strippers to cover the spread! LOL
Only a political whore gets on national TV and makes the statement that he should be paying higher taxes when his actions show that Obama pushed for and got the Bush tax cuts to the rich extended with his democratically controlled congress two years earlier
If he wanted to pay higher taxes like he claimed, why didn't he implement his tax reform when he had the power with a democratically controlled congress in 2009 or 2010?
Oops, looks like Obama knifed you supporters in the back again, and for a pitiful few dollars in his own pocket.
DUH! I'm an Obama supporter and I'm gullible.
do you remember WY?
dont tell me you have to sniff your butt first
waiting
Poor elvis
He has to strike out at the truth to hide his shame at supporting Obama. Maybe if elvis would pull his head out of that part of the body where the sun doesn't shine once in a while he might see the light of day rather then live in ignorance.
I will give you a hint unemloyment..you can finish it
O extended the cuts as an olive branch to the GOP, who used it to flail him completely.
What gratitude, no wonder NOBODY will admit to being "Republican" anymore.
"buket
I'm a moderate who will support a moderate whether or not they are Democrat or Republican. I was a moderate democratic for 45 years but Obama changed that.
I don't like being knifed in the back by a political whore and that is exactly what Obama is. Maybe you didn't see him on National TV with this performance.
Oh, please excuse me America, I can't help I'm crying on national TV because I should be paying higher taxes, but I'm not because I got the Bush tax cuts to the rich extended. BOO hoo, boo hoo; anyone got a hankie for your commander in chief, boo hoo, boo hoo, I just can't stop crying over all that money I've put in the bank with my tax cuts, boo hoo, boo hoo; where that hankie?
He's no leader, that for sure and his own words condemn him as such. Condemn him as irresponsible and a failed leader to be exact.
Moderate? You called the President of The USA a WHORE!
I rest my case: The Republican Party is no more.
So rightwingers have no principles. Their words of condemnation for Akin are not yet cold and now they are rushing to his aid with loving arms. What a bunch of two-faced slugs these hardliners really are.
Dead-on correct there!
However, slugs are highly specialized and evolved creatures, and vary little in what they can be expected to do.
Here I am guilty of thinking one would have a response to this.
However: nobody's identifying themselves as republican anymore, so maybe nobody's there.
hey tea party why did you have to ruin the moderate republicans...you should have made a 3rd party and left the moderates alone
Republicanism is dead.
And The Independents see you coming, in droves.
Wow. One right wing religious nut supporting another. What a surprise.
What ever happened to the days when a moderate liberal, such as myself, could have a civil exchange of ideas with a person with conservative views. I'm overstating it; I have conservative friends who are intelligent and reasonable and I enjoy our conversations, especially the ones that make me consider my own positions in an objective light.
That seems to be gone. Instead we have this moron Akins and Santorum, who apparently belongs to an extremist wing of the Catholic Church. I don't mind religion as long as you don't shove your beliefs down my throat. That is also a part of relisious freedom, although the religious right doesn't see it that way.
Come on, people. Let's try to ignore the nuts at either end of the spectrum and try to emulate the kind of unity that Tom Brokaw refers to as the greatest generation. Everyone didn't agree, but they knew we were all in this together.
Rick - precisely the problem, and more to the point, we could talk to each other, yell at each other, and generally test our opinions over brats and beer...and remain good friends. We better get back there soon, or this republic will fail!
Santorum and Akin what a pair! They now represent what the Republicans are all about.
Let's all back the guy that said that women who 'legitimately' get raped can fend off pregnancy with their own bodies for Senate just to get the majority! Yea! Republicans 2012!!
I'm from Missouri; it is so sad to think that people in this state will vote for Akin just because he is a Republican. However, I have talked to some of my very Republican female colleagues who feel that Akin crossed the line on the "legitimate rape" statement. It took that statement for many of them to question his stance on minimum wage (he's against it); Social Security (doesn't believe in it); veterans' benefits (has voted several times to cut them); equal pay (doesn't believe in it) . . . just to name a few of his basic political beliefs. If you live in Missouri, please vote for Claire.
Obama/Biden 2012
FACTS DON'T LIE:
The federal government reports that since President Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009, unemployment has risen from 7.8 percent to 8.3 percent nationwide. The median income has dropped from $55,000 to $51,000, national debt has risen from $10.6 trillion to $16 trillion (34 percent), and gas prices have risen from an average of $1.84 to $3.82 a gallon (110 percent).
The Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office statistics report that from President George W. Bush’s last year in office, 2008, until now, the budget deficit has risen from $458 billion to $1.29 trillion. That’s a whopping 283 percent! Statistics don’t lie. If a football coach were to have 3 1/2 years of failure, he would be fired. We need to fire Obama and let a new coach try to do better. It certainly couldn’t be worse.
Solution to your foggy numbers: Tax cut for millionaires and an increase for the middle class.
CBO reported that if we try trickle down again, we're royally (like in Ann Romney) screwed. They also reported that following through with the stimulus package would have helped America get more jobs, but TP/GOP said NO!
PS
Reality has a Liberal Bias.
"...an extremist wing of the Catholic Church."
A truly terrifying concept.
One of my biggest fears if Romney for president mispeaks which he does so often...he may be smart with money and want to promise us the world but frankly what comes out his mouth could bring a whole country down...like ours...if elected he will have more people pissed at us and we will be putting out so many fires and apologizing to countries of our speaking out of turn or just opening mouth and inserting foot I do not want to even imagine...
And don't forget, he changes what he says, does, and advocates on a daily basis.
Republicans could elect him, and the very next day he could say he's keeping Obamacare.
And I'd expect his voters to be surprised at this?
Huckabee forgives Akin..but he wont forgive Obama...of his sins..of being a Muslim
oh and apologizing for doing wrong..like a real Christian should do....whats wrong with saying I am sorry...that takes a real man and strong man to do that
That's ok. I forgive that wannabe Huckabee for the sins of being a shill for the uber rich 1%.
Now if Huckabee would just fade away like Amy Semple Mcpherson.
Reality has a Liberal Bias. WTFU
hahah like glenn beck
The zealous nut case is back!
I think it is now quite evident the Republicans are willing to dwell at the bottom and use any method to win. Republicans have shown me one unfortunate fact about America and that is just how vulnerable our elections have become.
Appears the republicans are using any method to lose...ROFLMAO
Remember what Samuel L. Jackson says, WTFU!
You should vote for who you think is best not Because they are Republican or Democrat. Santorum has his priorities screwed up. Just voting anyone in just for party reasons is stupid what if that person really is an idiot Republican or Democrat he or she would just make things worse.
Vote for Gary Johnson. The ONLY moderate left in the presidential race.
the man will not win...it takes a real women...who is gentle with her words..to win she will win
There you go, the totally unprincipled, dishonest, dishonorable, chickenhawk, bush!t RepubliCONS, and Mitt is quintessential example and Santorum the poster boy for them, dishonest, cowardly, and unprincipled to the core.
Good to know that Santorum supports legitimate rape.
Unlike some, I have actually crossed party lines to vote for the opposition when I truly believed that the candidate put up by my party was not fit to hold public office. Sometimes I have had to leave both boxes unchecked because I did not believe either candidate was fit to hold public office.
Here's the crux of the matter. There really are some people who are so misguided, so ignorant, so ammoral, so evil, that they should never be allowed to hold public office. Todd Akin is one of those people. Rick Santorum is one of those people.
They are so blind to basic decency that they cannot be trusted to represent the people of this country in any capacity. How dare some simple minded man tell me that I must bear the child of my rapist? How dare some simple minded man dare to tell me that I cannot use birth control because it is contrary to his religion? How dare someone, anyone, try to cut veterans' benefits after sending these soldiers out to fight and die on their behalf? This is completely unacceptable, the absolute lowest form of budget cutting! We have taken decent, patriotic American boys and girls and sent them into harm's way on our behalf and when they come home wounded and broken in body and spirit, we owe them whatever they need to renew their lives. How DARE Akin vote to cut veterans' benefits? This is the same man that beat the drum for war and now he doesn't want to pay the bills? Shame on him! And shame on anyone who votes for him.
Right on! Tell it like it is.
underemployed- Great post PERFECTION!
O&JOE
hummbird,
Thanx.
Obama's tax reform, which his campaign Ads have been portraying as a middle class job creator tax reform, reminds me of the $1.4 million he was awarded when he accepted the Nobel Peach Prize he claimed to the world he neither earned nor deserved and there were others who deserved it more.
He did offer to donate it to charity at the time, but some how that $1.4 million ended up in an Obama bank account for over a year. And the only reason it did get donated was that a reporter asked him a year later what charities he had given the money to and Obama couldn't answer. Two weeks later the money finally got donated.
So Obama gets on national TV claiming he should be paying higher taxes. Lets for get that two years earlier, rather than implementing his tax reform, he pushed for and got the Bush tax cuts to the rich extended, so as I said, lets forget that for a minute.
With a worth of $10 million Obama could have back up his claim about paying higher taxes by getting out his check book and cutting a check to the IRS for the difference between what he paid and what he claimed he should have paid, but he didn't do that did he?
And you want me to support a man who has no honor, integrity or the Character of a man who any says what he think people want to hear, then knifes his supporters in the back with his actions.
Rick Santorum? BROUHAHA!
He is an idiot like the rest of the GOP. I used to say the Tea party was crazy, but there is no difference now. The GOP has committed suicide. It is funny to watch!
Any voter particularly women should not allow this guy in. Making a statement tot he effect that "Legitimate Rape...." well, rape is rape. Rape is bad, the woman's body doesn't shut down or distinguish what sperm does. How ludicrous. Anyone who thinks like that seem to have some mental issues or failed Biology 101. This person suppose to be educated and serving in public office! Some republican political leaders are proving to be an embarrassment to the establishment continuously. Money doesn't buy common-sense. Republican senatorial seats are now threatened to be lost. Good! It is an opportunity for Democratic senators to display good candor and not become as their counterpart as they their opponents foot their mouths and other foul deeds they do.
What happened- So you do believe in a man who made millions off of hard working Americans benefits and pensions? Really it might have been legal, but it was immoral!
Obama extended the Bush tax cut's in exchange for extended unemployment benefits, you know this was the deal made with the GOP, if you don't then it just shows that you are a faithful fox news viewer, and are uninformed!
Keep talking you are as clueless as R&R.
O&JOE
The Republican party is effectively over.
This is not morally high ground. Mr. Santorum.
I hope this makes the Daily Show. Miss you Santorum. You provided such fodder.
People like Rick do NOT go away. Hold the curtain call.