But when it comes to money, Santorum is one of the most corrupt politicians in America (which is really saying something) and the King of Earmarks. He was named one of the three most corrupt Senators in Congress two years in a row, until he was decisively voted out of office. He also
milked state government for $73,000 in unwarranted tuition reimbursements
while home-schooling his kids, and got a
sweet-heart deal on a 5-year, $500,000 mortgage from campaign contributors.

On the morality front, he
helped John Ensign cover up his adultery scandal, and Santorum has his own abortion weirdness.

"I would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military." -- Rick Santorum, horrifying heterosexual soldiers everywhere.

“I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” - Santorum, night of the Iowa caucuses

"I didn't say black people. I started to say word and kind of went 'bleurgh' and mixed my thoughts. I started to say one word and came up with a different word and moved on." - Santorum, the next day

"The right approach is to acccept this horribly created, in the sense of rape, but nevertheless gift, in a very broken way, the gift of human life and accept what God is giving to you as as as you know we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life." - Santorum, on why he opposes abortion in cases of rape

“Sadly, the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960s has taken root. The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness.” - Santorum, in his 2005 book "It Takes a Family." When asked about it, he blamed his wife for writing that section (even though his name is the only one in the credits.)

"I think some things maybe were maybe taken out of context. So I will not call him the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal that perhaps others would want to call him -- I'll let his wife call him that instead."
-- Sarah Palin, after Santorum criticized her.

"Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality" - Santorum

"The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. ... What I’m talking about is onward American soldiers. What we’re talking about are core American values. -- Santorum

"Rick Santorum is a Catholic missionary. That's what he is. He's a Catholic missionary who happens to be in the Senate." - Sean Reilly, former Santorum aide, in 2005

"George W. Bush is the first Catholic president of the United States." -- Santorum. (As opposed to John F. Kennedy? Or Bush's Methodism?)

This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America.
If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age? ... He was successful. He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions. The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful and first successful was in academia. ...once the colleges fell and those who were being educated in our institutions, the next was the church. Now you’d say, ‘wait, the Catholic Church’? No. ... Mainline Protestantism in this country ... is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."
-- Rick Santorum speaking at Ave Maria College, 2008

-- Quote Sources

For example, Santorum bragged in 2006 that he had steered millions of dollars in earmarks to clients of American Continental Group, a lobbying firm. They gave him $14,000 that year in donations, and after he left office paid him $65,000 for “legislative policy consulting services.” Another firm he helped, Consol Energy, paid him $142,500 just in 2010 and 2011.

But that's nothing compared to what he got from Universal Health Service, a medical company with facilities in Puerto Rico that has been sued for Medicare fraud. You see, while in Congress, Santorum kept pushing very specific laws increasing Medicare payments in Puerto Rico; one would have cost the government $400 million. (The eventual bill gave them more money, but not that much.)

That seems like an odd cause for a small-government Senator from Pennsylvania to work so hard on -- until you find out Universal Health Service paid Santorum $395,000 for his "insights" after he left the Senate, and appointed him to their Board of Directors. During his time on the Board, UHS was sued for Medicare fraud (and settled out of court), and several of their facilities had their certifications suspended or cancelled.

Santorum, who entered the Senate as one of the least wealthy congresspeople, bought a $2 million, 5,000 SF house in Great Falls, VA in 2007. It has 4 bedrooms and 5 baths, and sits on 5 acres, and goes well with the 5 rental houses he has accumulated since entering Congress.

While in the Senate, Santorum held weekly meetings supporting Tom Delay's "K-Street Project," an effort to fill lobbying groups with Republican loyalists. And they rewarded him handsomely, even back then. In 2006, he received $500,000 from lobbyists, far more than any other federal candidate -- 40% more than the #2 recipient, George Allen.

It's true that CREW -- the group that named him one of the 3 most corrupt senators, out of 100 -- is a liberal-leaning group. Only five of their 25 corrupt congresscritters in 2006 were Democrats -- but they have pretty good credibility on the people they include. (Who they leave out may be a different story.) Their reports, which come out every year, are meticulously documented with solid media sources, ethics investigation reports and required government filings by the congresspeople themselves. They only picked 3 Senators out of 100, and Santorum was one of them. Most of the Congresspeople convicted of bribery or other ethical crimes since then -- such as Democrat William Jefferson, and Republicans Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham - were listed first in these reports. They're pretty solid.

Now, unlike Jefferson and Cunningham, no one is accusing Santorum of direct bribery -- no one found bundles of cash in his freezer -- but he had a remarkably consistent pattern of collecting money from big special interests right at the time he did them big, highly specific favors. We're not talking about generic actions like voting to keep taxes low. These are very detailed provisions, added to bills by Santorum, that put millions of dollars in the coffers of these companies.

One dramatic example was Santorum introducing a bill that required the National Weather Service to keep collecting weather data, but said they couldn't release it to the public! They had to hand it to private weather companies who then would make the profit off of it. Guess what? Accuweather, a private weather company in Santorum's state, gave him tens of thousands of dollars right during the time he promoted this absurd bill.

There are many more examples -- $25,000 from execs at Waste Management & Processes, Inc. after Santorum proposed a $100 million subsidy for their coal-to-diesel plant; $6,000 from Miller and Annheuser-Busch right before Santorum introduced a bill cutting the beer barrel excise tax in half; $20,000 from tobacco interests around the time he blocked a law allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco, etc. etc. It's pretty shameless even by Congressional standards. -- Sources

The King of Earmarks

They're kind of out of fashion now, but when earmarks were all the rage in Congress, Rick Santorum was the master of doling them out. He wasn't required to report or list them at the time, but during his years in Congress, Santorum passed out over a BILLION dollars in earmarks -- chunks of money directed to one specific recipient -- according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. He even voted for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska.

In one bill alone -- the 2006 Defense appropriations bill -- he personally inserted 54 earmarks that delivered $154 million of your tax money to special interests. And hey, guess what? Those special interests donated over $200,000 to his campaigns just that year.

Clearly this profligate spending of other people's money is what led to Santorum's big problem with corruption. -- Sources

Abortion Weirdness

Normally I would not even talk about the personal pain or experience someone has gone through with an issue like this. Rick Santorum, however, has missed no opportunity to tell the tale of his wife's lost pregnancy, over and over, as a mark of their personal commitment to the pro-life cause, and the reality is much stranger and more disturbing than that.

(We'll ignore for now the fact that Santorum thinks babies conceived during rape are gifts from God.)

In 1996, Santorum's wife Karen was pregnant, and doctors told her that the fetus had a fatal defect and would, at best, survive only a short time outside the womb. Many couples would choose to end that pregnancy, to terminate it, to abort it, depending on your perspective. They chose to soldier on, and that's great.

Then Karen developed a life-threatening intrauterine infection and a fever of 105 degrees. The vast majority of couples would have ended the pregnancy to save the mother's life. But that would have been political suicide in pro-life circles, and the Santorums did everything possible deliver the baby. Finally, they induced labor using pitocin, even though the fetus was 20 weeks old. No baby has ever survived birth at 20 weeks. Ever. So doing so is very close to an abortion using indirect means. Still, 2 or three babies (in history) have survived at 21 weeks and a few days, so why not give it a chance? Again, fair enough.

The baby was delivered and died very quickly. A terrible tragedy. Still fine. It's what the Santorums did next that is strange. They would not let the body go to the morgue. Instead, they slept that night in the hospital with the corpse between them, then took it home and had their children hold and cuddle the cold, dead, day-old body of their sibling, who they named Gabriel. Next, Karen wrote a best-selling book, "Letters to Gabriel," and the couple has missed no chance since then to brag about this as their commitment to the pro-life cause.

I know, you're thinking "But they're just very committed, pro-life people, maybe you can't understand their tragedy but how can you criticize them for it?" Aside from the ickiness of using this sad event for political gain, there is this: Karen dated, and lived with Tom Allen, an ob-gyn who preformed abortions, for six years until right before she hooked up with Rick Santorum. She travelled the world with him, on his dime. The weirdest thing of all? Not that he was 40 years older than her. (He's still alive, in fact, at 92.) No, the weirdest thing is that her 6-year live-in lover was the doctor who delivered her as a baby. -- Sources

John Ensign Adultery Scandal Coverup

Santorum was involved in the coverup of fellow Senator (and friend) John Ensign's adultery scandal. After losing his reelection to the Senate, Santorum went to work for Fox News. He was there when Doug Hampton -- the Ensign aide whose wife Senator Ensign was sleeping with -- decided to go public. Hampton emailed Santorum and Megyn Kelly (who also worked for Fox), seeking a meeting to plan how to go public.

Instead of reporting on the case or referring it to Fox reporters, Santorum called Ensign to warn him that the scandal was about to break. Ensign called a meeting that night to tell his staff about the affair and plan a response. Ensign eventually had to resign anyway, and the Senate Ethics Committee concluded that Ensign violated federal law in attempting to cover up the scandal, including offering Hampton a job and seeking clients for his consulting business.
-- Sources

Sticking $73,000 in school fees to state government

Santorum loves to talk about cutting government expenditures, and relying on yourself. But while homeschooling his kids, he collected $73,000 in unwarranted tuition reimbursements from the Penn Hills Pennsylvania School District for an online charter cyber-school -- even though, by his own admission, they lived in Virginia 11 months of the year, and he was making $165,200 a year as a U.S. Senator at the time. (Virginia does not pay for students to attend online schools if a local real-world school is available, as it was to Santorum's family.)

Santorum claimed he was a valid resident of the Pennsylvania school district because he owned a house there -- which cost $88,000, compared to the $690,000 he paid for the house they actually live in. The only problem with that story is, he rented the Pennsylvania house out during the time he was supposedly a resident.

After this was discovered and publicized, Santorum pulled his kids out of the cyber-school, but refused to repay the $73,000. As a result, the State of Pennsylvania had to pay another $55,000 to settle a lawsuit by the local school district demanding repayment. -- Sources

Special Treatment on Mortgage

Philadelphia Trust is a boutique bank that caters to "affluent investors and institutions," and offers special low mortgage rates to investors in the bank who have a quarter million dollars or more in liquid assets. Santorum's financial disclosure filings prove that he did not meet either requirement at the time (though he has gotten rich since leaving Congress), but the bank still gave him a $500,000 five-year loan at the low rates. Officers of the bank also donated $24,000 to Santorum's re-election campaign.

-- Sources

Sources

Quote Sources -- Back

Satan has taken over Protestant churches -- 3 sources, actually:
The speech on YouTube (audio only) -- Description on Ave Maria College's website -- More links and details & the speech on RightWingWatch.com

Man on dog quote -- Excerpt From Santorum Interview by the Associated Press, USA Today, April 23, 2003

missionary, Bush Catholic -- The Believer, By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE, New York Times Magazine, May 22, 2005

Gift of a rape baby -- Rick Santorum, interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, January 23, 2012

Romney quote -- whyromney.com blog, http://whyromney.com/blog/2011/11/hello-world/

Palin quote -- "Palin: I Won’t Call Santorum A ‘Knuckle-Dragging Neanderathal’ — His Wife Can Do That," Talking Points Memo, February 10, 2011 (video)

no sex in military -- from Fox News/Google debate, Sept. 22, 2011, see Republican Gay rights group demands apology from Santorum, by Lucy Madison, CBS News Political Hotsheet, September 23, 2011

against contraception -- Rick Santorum Interview with CaffeinatedThoughts.com by Shane Vander Hart, YouTube, October 11, 2011

Rick Santorum: The Crusades Get a Bad Rap, Talking points memo, February 23, 2011

Black people quote -- Talking Points Memo update, 1/4/2012 (includes video of the comment)

School fees Sources -- Back

"Dems press Cyber Costs Issue," by Vera Miller, Penn Hills Progress (a local Pennsylvania newspaper), September 20, 2006

Editorial: Santorum should pay Penn Hills, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 11, 2006

Secret $50,000 Payment Sources -- Back

Rick Santorum tipped off John Ensign, report says, by Juana Summers, Politico Magazine, May 22, 2011,

John Ensign Hit With Scathing Report, by Associated Press, in Newser.Com, May 12, 2011

"Sen. John Ensign Sex Scandal Spreads to other Republicans," by Brad Knickerbocker, May 14, 2011

Abortion Weirdness Sources -- Back

The Believer, By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE, New York Times Magazine, May 22, 2005

Before Karen Met Rick, by Nancy Hass, Newsweek, Jan 16, 2012

Most Corrupt Sources -- Back

Santorum Becomes Millionaire in Six Years After Senate Loss, by Heidi Przybyla and Julie Bykowicz, Bloomberg News Service, in San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 2012

After Santorum Left Senate, Familiar Hands Reached Out, by Mike McIntire and Michael Luo, New York Times, January 5, 2012

Beyond Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch), CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), 2006

Beyond Delay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress, CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), 2005

Mortgage Sources -- Back

Santorum Surge Brings Ethics Questions", by Matthew Mosk and Brian Ross, ABC-News: The Blotter, January 4, 2012

Earmark Sources -- Back

Donors Gave as Santorum Won Earmarks By MICHAEL LUO and MIKE McINTIRE, New York Times, January 15, 2012

Beyond Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch), CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), 2006

Beyond Delay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress, CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), 2005

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Copyright 2012 Mark Saltveit. Photograph of Santorum By IowaPolitics.com (Flickr: DSCN1236) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons