Rick Santorum K-Street King

I know, I know.  He’s out and we need to be “nice” to Santorum supporters to get them to join Gingrich.  I’m trying.  I really am.

I’m not worried about those who claim they are going to keep writing Rick in on primary ballots or that he will “unsuspend” his campaign once the Pennsylvania primary is over.  If didn’t work for Palin it certainly won’t help Santorum.

But I am worried about the Tea Party and the conservative movement.  And I’m not going to let lies keep eating away at both.  This post is brought to you by an unnamed “Tea Party” blogger here in Texas who was not only pushing Santorum from dawn til dusk, but refused to retract ANY false lies they sent out even after corrections were sent.  I received the following headline in their daily email this morning: 

It’s bad enough that so many social (and other) conservatives were too lazy to do their homework on Rick Santorum’s weighty record of lies and hypocrisies, but even this week this blogger continued to try and justify Santorum even though he has already dropped out of the race.  This particular Texas conservative sent out a false narrative to try and defend Santorum’s Specter endorsement which had been debunked 3 ways from Saturday.   Who knows if she even read my carefully documented rebuttal.  I have so little faith in my fellow conservatives these days.

The fight for the conservative movement is now a civil war.  If we don’t hold each other to a standard of OBJECTIVE TRUTH we will forever be relegated to the sidelines of not just national influence, but those within our own party.

So below is my email rebuttal to this person who was pushing Santorum to the clueless even through this week:

---

It is more than a little ironic that you would run an article lamenting the K-Street and Tea Party battle after you refused to print the truth about Rick Santorum who was the co-FOUNDER of the K-Street project and worked with Jack Abramoff.  If this was an Austin RINO you would (heroically) be unrelenting in getting the truth out.  And I'd be applauding, promoting and doing the same with you.

Somehow, you've been usurped, or blinded.  And it is killing the conservative movement.

I don't say this to "beat you up" or demean you.  As you know I even ENCOURAGED people to subscribe to (your blog) on an earlier post where I called you to task.  But I hate to see you and other conservatives played for fools or worse, lose your good reputation as these facts come out.  You are needed for the battle ahead if you will finally make a declaration of devotion to truth.

I’m not speaking as a partisan supporter of Gingrich (although I’ve endorsed Newt) but from PERSONAL knowledge and fact.  In fact, I have a friend who is a Christian movie producer that procured Rick Santorum for their advisory board prior to his run for President.  Santorum refused to do ANY ACTUAL help unless he was paid.  This for a group trying to make a groundbreaking film about Jesus' life. 

Here are FACTS about Santorum's K-Street lobbying.  How you could not know this as a citizen journalist is beyond me.  If you DO know this and continue to promote (and defend) Santorum you are worse than the GOP establishment who tries to hide the truth of the people they want to push.   If you do NOT know this, (which I pray is the case), a retraction should be forthcoming immediately and a call to support either Gingrich or Paul in Texas.

The documented FACTS:

BusinessWeek: Santorum was the Senate "go to" man for Washington Lobbyists and FOUNDED K-Street with Grover Norquist (who has now brought the Muslim Brotherhood into the Republican Party).

This is why Santorum was rated the most corrupt Senator in 2005/2006 since his committees received more lobbyist donations than ANY OTHER

In 2003, Washington Monthly ran an article where lobbyists and former Congressmen called the coercion for money by Washington "Rick's meetings."

Rick Santorum ADMITTED it in Roll Call in 2004

His PAC collected $11 million to help "conservative" law makers but he only gave away $1 million.  He then formed a 527 called Softer Voices that kept ALL of the donations.  As he showed with his own charity, he’s got a problem with money issues.

A professor at Kansas State studied the the project and found that Santorum was the key in the Senate.  Instead of trying to create future Pat Toomey's - 23 of Santorum staffers ended up becoming lobbyists instead of future conservative politicians.  Even the head of his South Carolina campaign was a convicted lobbyist who bought hookers and worse for congressmen.  Rather than be proud of the Chuck Colson like change he made in prison, Santorum HID it from public disclosure documents.

In 2005, he told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that his K-Street operation was a "good thing".

Santorum had at least two instances which should disqualify ANY conservative some ever supporting him, or allowing him to be a voice of the Tea Party.

The first is when Gingrich set up a bipartisan commission in the new GOP Congress to fight the terrible rapes, abuse and child labor of Saipan sweatshops.  Here are ACTUAL billings by Jack Abramoff's firm proving Santorum got money DIRECTLY before a fund raiser, and DIRECTLY AFTER he got the bill killed.  What makes it worse as these Saipan operations were known to also FORCE ABORTIONS on their laborers.  Despicable.

The second was when he attempted to take away the the right to collect data from the National Weather Service so that his campaign contributor, Accuweather could become more profitable.  Not only is this "buying votes" that no other conservative would touch (or vote for), it would have literally cost lives.

Then, in 2006 people discovered what Delay and Santorum were doing:

Indeed, by 2006, the K Street Project was a national scandal. Two of its best-known participants, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and DeLay, had been indicted for other crimes -- Abramoff for corruption and DeLay for money laundering. Santorum distanced himself from the project, stating in February 2006, "We don't have a K Street Project. ... I have never called anybody or talked to anyone to try to get anybody a position on K Street with one exception, and that is if someone from my office is applying for a job and an employer calls me."

But one month later, after the temporary, scandal-induced hiatus, Santorum restarted his lobbyist gatherings. He lost his reelection bid later that year by a whopping 18 percentage points, partially due to his role leading the K Street Project.

Santorum received $496,683 from Washington lobbyists in his 2006 campaign, the most of any candidate during that election cycle.  Over the course of Santorum’s congressional career, lobbyists ranked 10th among his groups of donors, contributing $731,937 to his campaigns.

Perhaps this explains why Rick was NO WHERE to be found during the Tea Party genesis even though Newt Gingrich was using his own money to cut ads to get people to join.  (or TARP or ObamaCare.) And if you thought undercutting wonderful Tea Party Pennsylvanian Pat Toomey by siding on the Specter side wasn't enough, supporting the Mitch McConnell GOP establishment pick over Rand Paul in Kentucky and Carli Fiorina over Tea Party Californian Chuck Devore was clear evidence that Rick was no early Tea Party supporter.

It is absolutely crazy how so called self-identified Tea Partiers now want to lament the destruction of the movement THAT THEY HELPED CREATE BY SUPPORTING SELLOUT CANDIDATES like Santorum.  Or now lament the influence by GOP insiders in the Tea Party when Santorum was part of the problem as Pennsylvania Tea Partiers and leaders have been telling us since 2005.

You maybe can't change your past infractions on truth - but it would sure do a lot for the movement if you would at least admit that you didn't fully vet your candidate before supporting.

Or, if you did know this and still send out complaints about K-Street influencers - quit calling yourself a Tea Party conservative.

Posted in: Conservatism,conservatives,politics,Rick Santorum,rsfiles