Tales of success and betrayal from Rick Santorum

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: This was written by a Philadelphia Daily News columnist in response to the first column by a new Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, former Sen. Rick Santorum. “Hopefully, Santorum's first column will be the last one that's 'all about ME…'"

Sorry, boss. Your prayers have been unanswered.

Presented with as much sarcasm as possible.)

The Elephant in the Room | How Republicans can show that they care (LM: Stop laughing.)

By Rick Santorum

Today most Americans will share family stories, gather round the dining-room table and pray to a generous God, and volunteer to help those in need. Thanksgiving is the time when we are what has made us the greatest country in the world - a family-centered, moral people who take personal responsibility for caring for our neighbors in need.

Along with churches and families, government has played a role in, at first, nurturing - and, more recently, weakening - this social compact. One of my greatest frustrations as a Republican leader was trying to persuade my colleagues that government can help cultivate this social bond. I won that argument, in part, when I helped pass two of the most successful antipoverty bills in history, the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and the American Community Renewal Act. (LM: Well, if that isn’t all about ME…)

In 2001, with a "compassionate conservative" president, I thought the sky was the limit, especially after we turned back unfairly high taxes for married couples, and increased the child tax credit. But the movement to help the poor by transforming our entire social-welfare system was snuffed out by a combination of hard-line conservatives who saw this as big-government conservatism and the hard left who wanted no changes at all.

<snip>

(LM: Wait a minute…Rick Santorum was the voice of reason, trying in vain to mediate compromise between the hard-line left and hard-line right? Have I been whacked, forcefully, in the back of the head?)

Link to Santorum’s fun house of mirrors and somewhat inaccurate memories: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/11733567.html

(LM: Whoops. Fixed some bad punctuation.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Will he tell the dead baby story again?

Santorum is a frootloop. That story about his wife's miscarriage and bringing the baby home to 'bond' with its siblings is all the proof I needed.