It is on in Iowa as former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum jets into Des Moines to address the Iowa Christian Alliance this evening. Santorum plans to preach to the flock about fiscal and social issues along with national security and what he has called an “attack on our culture.” And that clearly has somebody worried. Iowa voters statewide yesterday received robo-calls calling Santorum a “pro-life fraud” for his previous political support of former N.J. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.
Santorum, speaking in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport this afternoon, also showed PhillyClout a bogus “policy announcement” being emailed from rick2012forIowa@gmail.com. The e-mail, which claims to be from Santorum, leads to a YouTube video that pushes the same message while showing images of Whitman and Specter.
“It’s amazing,” said Santorum. I’m flattered." The former senator, who was tweeting about the robo-call and e-mail, chuckled when asked if these added up to the first attack ads of 2012. “What about that!” he laughed. “What an honor.”
The robo-calls come from a woman reading from a script that does not identify who paid for the effort. Chances are, it’s one of Santorum’s fellow Republicans likely to face him 22 months from now in the Iowa GOP caucuses, the first hurdle in the long race for the party’s nomination to run for president.
Here’s the robo-call script: As a lifelong advocate for the sanctity of life, I know a pro-life fraud and Rick Santorum is a pro-life fraud. In 1997, Santorum campaign for the abortion supporting governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman. Gov. Whitman has deep associations with the radical abortion supporting groups Republicans for Choice and Republican Majority for Choice. In fact, Gov. Whitman was an active proponent of partial-birth abortion. In 2004, Sen. Santorum actively campaigned for radical abortion Sen. Arlen Specter instead of pro-life Congressman Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Sen. Specter, a left-wing Democrat, is a leading advocate for President Obama’s liberal agenda in Washington. If you don’t get a chance to speak with Sen. Santorum face-to-face, please call him at 202-682-1204 and ask him to apologize for his long-time support of pro-abortion politicians.
Comment removed.
Maybe those folks in Iowa will really like ole Rick and he'll decide to become one of them. One can only hope!— philasportsfan- Wow. It's amazing that Rick Santorum could be considered to the left of anyone. Shows how far right the GOP has moved lately.— Richard DeMarco
- Santorum is an attack on people's intelligence.— BleedingRed
- Enough already sophisamson - just because you are for "personal responsibility" the left calls you a hater and intolerant. I'm sick of hearing it.— gone with the wind
- Holy cow! If Santorum isn't CONSERVATIVE enough, the Republicans will wind up with someone to the right of Huckabee in 2012 - a real "radical". The real question is why they didn't throw Ridge into the evil pro-choice bunch that Santorum once supported.— WestChester
- Comment removed.
- Santorum is a legitimate discussion point? WOW! When did 'Man on Dog' get his rectal craniotomy? One would've thought that we'd have learned long ago that culture war wing nuts are not worth the print given to them. But, then again…..John Yoo is still employed by this newspaper.— 77volks
- The Left should be cheering the news of Santorum running... no way he EVER gets elected. He lost his Senate seat in a purple state as an incumbent in an overwhelming landslide, so I'm not sure how he envisions a path to the presidency. Either he runs as a dark-horse, thereby dragging every single republican to the far right and out of the mainstream in order to hold the base or he wins the primary and gets totaled in the general election. Either way, Obama comes out on top. Same thing happens with Palin.— Whatjugot
- frothy mixture says what?— grackle
- Obama couldn't win re-election for dogcatcher.— gone with the wind
- Is it me or is this "sophisamson" have an opinion about EVERY single article on Philly.com She sure seems to have plenty of time preaching her values and blaming bush for everything on this site.— towelie
- I hear you towelie.— gone with the wind
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- No, I was just saying you seem to say the exact same thing on every post you make on every article you post on. Which seems to be every article Philly.com allows comments on. You hate Republicans, we get it. Thanks for proving my point with that previous post. You can't seem to grasp the concept that its 2010, not 2006. BTW, this is my third post ever on Philly.com, so I don't know what you are talking my name all over this "sight." Maybe there was another Towelie in 2006?— towelie
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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