Rick Santorum admits a lot of mistakes during choppy GOP debate
The first Republican presidential debate in a month – and perhaps the last of this primary campaign – was an uneven affair, as rusty candidates were forced to confront their opponents once again at close quarters while Rick Santorum struggled with the frontrunner’s mantle and the barrage of attacks that come with it.
Occurring less than a week before important primaries in Arizona and Michigan, last night’s two-hour meeting in Mesa, Ariz., was perhaps most noteworthy for Santorum’s repeated concession of past political mistakes and his repeated pledges not to repeat them.
The former Pennsylvania senator also struggled to explain his endorsement of GOP turncoat Arlen Specter, his concern about allowing women to assume combat duties, and his distinction between “good’’ and “bad’’ earmarks.
At one point, rival Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, complained, “This demonstrates the problem that I’m talking about: There’s always an excuse to do this.’’
But it was Mitt Romney, especially interested in preventing Santorum from beating him in his native Michigan, who left the former senator stammering moments later when he accused him of alternately embracing federal family planning funding known as Title X.
Santorum offered his own version of Democrat John Kerry’s famous 2004 “I voted for it before I voted against it’’ declaration in response.
“I think I was making it clear that, while I have a personal more objection to it, even though I don’t support it, that I voted for bills that included it. And I made it very clear in subsequent interviews that I don’t support that, I’ve never supported it, and have, on an individual basis, have voted against it. That’s why I proposed Title XX to counterbalance it,’’ said Santorum.
The audience at the Mesa Performing Arts Center responded with boos.
The back-and-forth between Romney and Santorum served to highlight how much Newt Gingrich has slipped out of the national political conversation the past two weeks, after Romney beat him in the Florida primary and Nevada caucuses and Santorum vaulted into the national polling lead with subsequent wins in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.
Like the others, Gingrich was strongest in attacking President Obama for his handling of the auto industry bailout, and what he branded the administration’s assault on religious liberty and mishandling of Iran’s possible pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
But the former House speaker offered little of the fire-breathing anti-Romney or anti-Santorum criticism he espoused in any of the prior 19 debates.
“I do believe there are moments when you preempt,’’ Gingrich said in evoking the specter of the Holocaust as he supported Israel’s right to stage an attack on Iranian nuclear targets. “If you think a madman is about to have nuclear weapons, and you think that madman is going to use those nuclear weapons, then you have an absolute moral obligation to defend the lives of your people by eliminating the capacity to get nuclear weapons.’’
The remainder of the debate was largely left to Santorum explaining himself and Romney attacking the former senator, first for seeking to create a distinction between earmarks, usually labeled pork-barrel spending.
“When abuse happened, I said we should stop the earmarking process. But I did say there were good earmarks and bad earmarks,’’ said Santorum.
Later, when Romney and Paul challenged him on his Title X views, Santorum said: “I admit I voted for large appropriation bills and there were things in there I didn’t like, things in there I did, but when it came to this issue, I proactively stepped forward and said that we need to do something at least to counterbalance it.’’
Then, when Romney suggested that Santorum helped create “ObamaCare’’ by supporting Specter in 2004 before he switched parties and voted for the Obama health care plan in 2010, the former senator argued his support was tactical.
Santorum said he extracted a concession to get Specter – then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – to support President George W. Bush’s expected nominees to the Supreme Court. Bush ended up nominating conservatives John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the bench.
“We have a 5-4 majority on the court that struck down that case that you just talked about and is there as a guardian of liberty. And I did the right thing for our country,’’ said Santorum.
That prompted Romney to reply with a smile: “Supporting Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey, that was a very tortuous route.’’
Romney again tweaked Santorum for recently suggesting women shouldn’t be allowed in combat roles because men serving alongside them might become emotional if they were wounded, or instinctively protective if they faced danger.
“I believe women have the capacity to serve in our military in positions of significance and responsibility, as we do throughout our society,’’ said Romney.
Santorum replied: “My concern that I expressed, I didn’t say it was wrong. I said I had concerns about certain roles with respect to, and particularly in, infantry. I still have those concerns, but I would defer to at least hearing the recommendations of those involved. But I think we have civilian control of the military, and these are things that should be decided not just by the generals, but we should not have social engineering, as I think we’ve seen from this president.’’
Romney gave perhaps his most polished answer of the night as he recapped his education record while Massachusetts governor, but on that point, Santorum was once again reduced to apologizing for his vote in favor of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
“I have to admit, I voted for that. It was against the principles I believed in, but, you know, when you’re part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the leader, and I made a mistake,’’ said the former senator, sparking boos.
He looked out into the audience and added: “You know, politics is a team sport, folks. And sometimes you’ve got to rally together and do something. And in this case, you know, I thought (educational) testing was, and finding out how bad the problem was, wasn’t a bad idea. What was a bad idea was all the money that was put out there, and that, in fact, was a huge problem.
“I admit the mistake and I will not make that mistake again. You have someone who is committed,’’ said Santorum.
Romney, whose campaign tome is titled, “No Apology,’’ just listened.
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