Rick Santorum, enjoying a recent surge in Iowa polling, on Thursday night responded to attacks by rival Rick Perry on his record as "a prolific earmarker."
Santorum said that while he took advantage of earmarks as a legislator, he didn't abuse them.
"Well, if you look at the Constitution of the United States, it says that Congress spends the money," Santorum said on CNN's "John King, USA." "And what happened was that earmarks were abused. Not mine, but others, who did abuse the earmark process. And when that became evident and that the public was upset about it, and saw this as a — as a real disqualifier, that shouldn't be done anymore, I said, you know, look, if the public is saying that Congress shouldn't be doing this anymore, I'll go along with it."
Santorum earned third place in two recent polls of likely Iowa caucus-goers, less than a week ahead of the caucuses in the early-voting state. His jump to the first tier inspired attacks from Perry's and Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns. Perry slammed Santorum as "a prolific earmarker," using the criticism at multiple campaign stops and in a
new ad in Iowa.
"I've never said I'm a perfect candidate," Santorum said on CNN. "But if you look at the — at the things that I've accomplished and the things that I've fought for, I've been a strong, consistent conservative and a constitutional conservative."
He also admitted he's "made some mistakes" but "it's all out there."
Santorum promoted his own experience in both the private and public sector, and noted he was elected senator in the heavily Democratic state of Pennsylvania.
"You know, this isn't my first rodeo," he said. "I've been through very, very tough campaigns, big, national scrutiny types of campaigns in the state of Pennsylvania."
Santorum also brushed aside what he called the media's narrative of Romney's electability. Romney consistently polls as the best candidate in head-to-head matchups with President Obama.
"And, you know, this is very much the 1980 election all over again," he said, referring to the year in which Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency. "And this is, you know, do we — do we go with someone who they — the pundits say can win? Or do we go with someone who we know is the best person to govern this country?"
