Is Rick Santorum a “Big Government” Conservative?

My answer? Aren’t they all? 😀

This guy seems to think so: (H/T HotAir.com)

Rick Santorum, like most Republican candidates, fashions himself the one true conservative running in 2012. If the thought of big, intrusive liberal government offends you, he might just be your man. And if you favor a big, intrusive Republican government, he’s unquestionably your candidate.
People are taking a look at Santorum. Important people. People in Iowa. Even New York Times columnist David Brooks recently celebrated his working-class appeal, newfound viability and economic populism, noting that the former Pennsylvania senator’s book “It Takes a Family“ was a ”broadside against Barry Goldwater-style conservatism” — or, in other words, a rejection of that Neanderthal fealty for liberty and free markets that has yet to be put down. Santorum’s book is crammed with an array of ideas for technocratic meddling; even the author acknowledges that some people “will reject” what he has to say “as a kind of ‘Big Government’ conservatism.”
Santorum grumbles about too many conservatives believing in unbridled “personal autonomy” and subscribing to the “idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do … that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom (and) we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues.” — Via Santorum: Conservative Technocrat | TheBlaze.com

Go read all of that, it’s quite interesting.

Nate Silver explains it.

This pretty much sums it up…:

I don’t care if you call it a win or a tie. In Iowa on Tuesday, Mitt Romney had a performance that looks ugly on the stat sheet , but which accomplished quite a bit when you consider it in its broader context.
The two most important things that Mr. Romney accomplished are as follows:
First, Mr. Romney eliminated Rick Perry from the nomination contest. Of course, Mr. Romney got a lot of help from Mr. Perry himself. Maybe we should use the passive voice — Mr. Perry was eliminated from the nomination contest. The conclusion is the same: the man who once looked like Mr. Romney’s most formidable rival has suspended his campaign.
The result was not unexpected based on late-stage polling — in fact, the polling average nailed Mr. Perry’s share of the vote almost to the decimal point.
But it was not long ago that Mr. Perry looked like he might finish in a solid third place, at a bare minimum, in Iowa; a poll conducted as recently as Dec. 12 actually had Mr. Perry ahead of Mr. Romney. And there was some chance that Mr. Perry might have done quite a bit better than third place. I’m not convinced that there was anything that happened to Rick Santorum that couldn’t have happened to Mr. Perry, if only Mr. Perry had received the right injection of momentum — say, an endorsement from the Family Leader, a conservative group — at the right time. — via Winning Ugly, but Winning – NYTimes.com

I think is pretty mcu spot on, read the rest, it is very interesting. A little wonkish, but very interesting.

This is a mememorandum thread.

Bachmann bails with the Longest….speech….ever

I can see why she left, but man, was that long rambling speech really necessary? 🙄

Via CNN:

The Video:

The Story:

(CNN) – Michele Bachmann ended her bid for the Republican presidential nomination Wednesday, hours after a disappointing sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
The Minnesota congresswoman suspended her campaign, a legal technicality that will allow her to continue to raise and spend campaign funds.

Ed Morrissey was not very impressed with her, like me. Stacy McCain was actually there, the lucky old bastard. 😛

Anyhow, you know who this helps, right? Perry, of course.

Some thoughts on attacks on Republicans

Last night as I sat and watched the video of Alan Colmes attacking Rick Santorum something came to my mind and I thought I would write about it. Folks, I believe that we should prepare ourselves for this sort of a thing. The reason I say this is that the Democratic Party establishment knows that they are in a very bad way. After all, their President has failed in every manner imaginable; his attempts to save the economy failed, his attempts to create more jobs failed, even his idiotic attempts to kick start green energy failed. Therefore, seeing that their President is more vulnerable than Joe Louis on a bad night, the Democratic Party is going to go straight for the jugular and pull every dirty pool trick in the book.

Now, because I am not a hyper-partisan and because I do tend to like to deal in the truth, I will say this: Republicans and Conservatives should not be shocked when this happens. Now why would I say this? Because it just so happens that “Right” media in this Country did some of the very same things to President Obama when he was being elected. What am I referring? Well, there is Birther nonsense, the accusation that President Obama is gay, that he is a Muslim or even more libel — a terrorist, that he is a communist —- all of that stuff.

The problem is that the things that I mentioned above are usually done under the banner of “all is fair in love and war.” The problem is that Conservatives and Republican do not mind doing to Democrats, because in their minds, the lies and half-truths are being done because of a love for the Country and because they want their candidate in the White House. The problem is that when these sort of nasty attacks happen to Conservatives at the behest of the Democratic Party; the first thing that Conservatives do is hoist the red flag and cry, “Foul!”

The reason why I say this is that politics as AllahPundit so very well put it is a blood sport with much bloodlust involved. Again, the attack on Santorum was an extreme example of Democratic Party bloodlust, which surprisingly now has had some blowback effect, which is a good thing. However, my fellow Conservatives, do not think that this is the end of it. More of this sort of stuff is coming, so be prepared for it. This is, after all just the primary season. Wait till the general election comes, that is going to be mess.

Put simply, my point is this; “those who fling poo, should not be shocked or surprised when it is flung back at them.”

UPDATED: Alan Colmes should be fired for this

As much as I hate riding on their coattails. This bothers me.

Check out this video via HotAir.com:

Now watch this one:

AllahPundit, who I agree with quite a bit, says:

I don’t know where Colmes is getting the idea that they brought the baby’s body home to “play with it.” They brought him home because they wanted his siblings to understand that they had a brother who’d lived and died. Seeing him with their own eyes and having a few hours together as a family would bond them to his memory in a way that nothing else would. It’s not what most parents would do, but it’s not “crazy.”

I have to agree with that; Bloodthirsty Liberal says:

Let this be a lesson. We’ve all said things that turn to [bleep] the moment they leave our tongue. You just to have to own it and apologize. Colmes might have had plenty of material that was within bounds, but he was so tone deaf to civil discourse, it never occurred to him that it was, ahem, inappropriate to mock how a family chose to honor the memory of a stillborn child, much less acknowledge the monstrosity of his comment when challenged.

Fire Andrea Mitchell was not impressed either and quite frankly, as open minded as I can be; I found this to be very lame.

As I have written on here before, I am not too huge on Santorum for some very personal reasons. However, I felt this was totally over the top and highly uncalled for. For this, one thing must happen:

Alan Colmes must be fired from his job, once and for all.

How ironic is it, that now Rupert Murdoch and his lovely wife Wendy are now on Twitter. I think if everyone sent this link, that read this to Rupert and his Wife on Twitter with a polite, “please fire Alan Colmes” message, something could very well happen. It’s a long shot, but it is worth a try.

Again, I’m no Rick Santorum fan boy; but this….is just a bit much, even for this hard shell Baptist. 😡

Update: The Daley Gator says that Mr. Colmes is the Gilipollas of the Day — How very true.

Update #2: Mediaite is now reporting on this and it has become a Memeorandum thread.

Update #3: Smitty is reporting that Alan Colmes has reported that he apologized to Santorum. Sorry, not enough, he must go.