Santorum plays GOP attacking role

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) is rapidly carving out a role as the attack dog in the Republican presidential nominating process.

While Santorum hasn’t announced his 2012 intentions, no potential GOP candidate has delivered sharper or more consistent attacks on his rivals. And most of those attacks have centered on the leading contenders he’ll have to supplant in order to win the nomination.

On Mitt Romney

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has borne the brunt of Santorum’s attacks, which have centered on the healthcare plan Romney signed as governor. Santorum claims that it’s not jobs, the economy or national security that will define the 2012 debate, but “ObamaCare.” And he thinks that’s bad news for Romney.

Two weeks ago, he told reporters in Massachusetts that “the issues, unfortunately, don’t line up particularly well for Gov. Romney this time, particularly with healthcare being front and center.”

More damningly, he told The Hill in an interview that healthcare could derail any chance Romney has at winning the nomination.

“I think it’s hard to see a path for him given the ‘ObamaCare’ issue,” he said. “It’s just hard for me to see how he gets past that [in a Republican primary].”

For his part, Romney frequently defends his plan by noting that it was executed at the state, not the federal, level. On that, Santorum agrees, but as he told an Iowa radio station, that’s merely a philosophical, and not a practical, distinction.

“When Mitt Romney gets up and says, ‘RomneyCare is OK and constitutional,’ he’s right. … Massachusetts can require you to buy health insurance, auto insurance, to buy whatever they believe is in the best interest for the people to do.”

But, he added, flatly, “It’s bankrupting Massachusetts.”

On Sarah Palin

Earlier this year, Santorum was asked whether former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was qualified to be president of the United States. His response wasn’t enthusiastic.

“What does it mean to be qualified to be president? She is born in this country and she’s the right age. Those are the qualifications,” he told the National Journal.

If that seems tepid, he’s been more forceful when it comes to the issue of the former governor abruptly leaving her job. 

Soon after she resigned, he told ABC, “She’s done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to do some explaining if she runs for president.”

Paramount among Palin’s burdens, he claims, is explaining to young women who idolize her why she would leave her political perch as one of the most celebrated female governors in the country. 

Santorum told Fox News: “Her biggest fan that I know is my wife, Karen, and she loves her, and she felt really bad that she quit. She felt like, number one, it hurt her, it hurt Sarah. And number two, it hurt women in politics.”

On Mike Huckabee

Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee might share a commitment to pro-life and other social-conservative causes, but — according to Santorum — they diverge at the water’s edge. 

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Santorum took on Huckabee’s foreign-policy credentials, saying simply that the former governor “doesn’t have a record on national security.”

That might not be an ad hominem attack, but it’s certainly a broad one from one of the most hawkish former senators around. 

On Mitch Daniels and Haley Barbour

Santorum’s attacks on his 2012 rivals are rounded out by two politicians who are closely linked: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

Last year, Daniels urged both conservatives and liberals to call a “truce” on social issues for the moment, so that the nation could address the economy and national debt. While Barbour has become a recent convert to integrating social and economic issues, he initially expressed sympathy to Daniels’s truce, urging candidates to stay focused on fiscal matters.

A candidate’s position on abortion, Barbour told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, “ain’t going to change anybody’s vote this year.” 

Santorum’s reaction was swift, telling a website: “Guys like Haley Barbour and Mitch Daniels say we have to sort of throw off the social issues and leave them behind. And I think that is a very serious mistake.”

So far, Santorum’s attacks have largely eschewed the personal and come only when he’s asked explicitly about a thorny issue for a rival but, thus far, he’s the only serious candidate who’s been willing to go negative against so many.

Santorum spokeswoman Virginia Davis said the former senator wouldn’t be “afraid” when asked about potential rivals.

“[He] believes that if you are considering running for president, you need to have the courage to speak honestly about what you believe,” she said.

She stressed that the former senator “has a great deal of respect for these individuals, but when he believes any of his fellow potential candidates are wrong on a position, he’s not going to be afraid to discuss that and offer alternatives.”

No, indeed. He has not been afraid. That’s been one of his core attributes as a politician throughout his career and continues to be today.

Heinze, the founder of GOP12.com, is a member of staff at The Hill.