Our political Quote of the Day comes from Dick Polman on apparent Presidential candidate wannabe Republican Rick Santorum:
Speaking of Santorum, he has voiced the worst hypocrisy of the week (so far). In a conference call with reporters yesterday, sponsored by the Republican party, the ex-Pennsylvania senator said it would be an “abomination” for the Senate Democratic majority to pass health care reform via the parliamentary maneuver known as the “budget reconciliation process,” which requires only 51 votes as opposed to the filibuster-proof 60 votes. (The White House and the Senate Democrats have made no decision to use that maneuver, but let us continue.) Santorum argued that health care reform was not an appropriate issue to pass in that manner; in his words yesterday, “this is a major policy initative in an area that goes beyond the federal government’s balance sheet.”
But then a reporter helpfully pointed out to Santorum that, during the Bush era, the majority Senate Republicans had used the 51-vote budget reconciliation maneuver to pass the bill that would mandate drilling for domestic oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Uh: Wasn’t the ANWR bill a major policy initiative on an issue that went beyond the balance sheet?
Behold Santorum, twisting like a pretzel: “Well, again, you’re talking about a situation where, again, the biggest thing about drilling is certainly it has an impact on a small chunk of land in northern Alaska, and it has an impact on the federal revenue, but it’s not a particularly complex thing.” Besides, “the impact on the 350 million Americans for drilling a few holes in Alaska is fairly minor, as far as how it affects their daily lives.”
Yeah, drilling in Alaska was “fairly minor,” and therefore it was OK to pass it via the 51-vote maneuver. But that doesn’t square with what Santorum said in 2006, when he declared that drilling in Alaska “has the potential to play a significant role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil.” And his sudden objections to the 51-vote maneuver don’t square with the fact that, in 1995, he helped lead the way on a Senate GOP effort to pass welfare reform via that very same maneuver.
Santorum has signaled again this week that he might seek the ’12 GOP nomination. Maybe Democrats should start giving him money.
Read Polman’s whole post since he also has an example of Democratic party hypocrisy in Massachusetts.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.