Rick Santorum To Mitt Romney: Tell Your Super PAC To Take Down Ad Attacking Me

WASHINGTON -- Rick Santorum is calling on Mitt Romney to urge an independent group supporting his presidential bid to take down a TV ad attacking him, saying if he can't persuade it to do so, he might not be fit to be president.

The new ad by the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future hits Santorum on supporting earmarks, backing the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," raising the debt ceiling five times and voting to "let convicted felons vote." The ad will be broadcast in South Carolina and Florida.

While Santorum has addressed many of these topics in his town hall meetings and media appearances, he took particular issue with the felon issue during an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

"That is an absolute lie," Santorum said of the ad's claim. "I voted for a provision that that said if a felon serves his term, serves his parole and probation, and then after that period time he can be restored his voting rights, which is exactly the law that's here in South Carolina. But we had a federal law at the federal level. ... Gov. Romney should be saying to his PAC say take that ad down, it's false. It gives the impression that I want people to be voting from jail."

The 2002 bill failed in a 31-63 vote. Santorum was one of just three Republicans to support the legislation, along with then-Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

As Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) explained at the time, the legislation "simply restores the right to vote to those individuals who have completely served their sentences, including probation and parole." It would have applied to all federal elections in every state.

So while the Restore Our Future ad is not technically inaccurate, it may leave voters with the impression that Santorum fears -- that felons would be able to vote from jail -- which is likely part of the reason the super PAC included it.

Romney has no control over Restore Our Future. Legally, super PACs cannot coordinate with any of the candidates. So even if Romney issues a public call for the group to do something, it does not have to listen to him. Santorum nevertheless said that if Romney -- or any other candidate -- is unable to persuade a super PAC backing him to take down an inaccurate ad, he may not be fit to be president.

When "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace asked Santorum what would happen if the super PAC ignores Romney, Santorum replied, "Obviously Gov. Romney doesn't have the persuasion. If he can't persuade his own people to do something, how is he going to persuade the American people and Democrats?"

So far, candidates and super PACs have spent a record $11.3 million in South Carolina on TV ads.

Comments

[janalyce]

07:16 PM on 01/16/2012

There was this guy called Frankenstein who created a monster he couldn't control. No one in the GOP ever read that classic book.

The GOP created SuperPACS to take advantage of that lovely, lovely ruling in Citizens United, thinking that this was a perfect way to allow corporations to fund their attack ads and other propaganda, while the Democrats had to rely on $10 donations from the great unwashed.

Unfortunately, they forgot about PRIMARIES. Which meant that SPs could be used against any one of them! And they forgot that a SuperPac, once formed, cannot be controlled by the candidate. Which means that their fearless followers are free to say anything they want, even if it might come back to bite "their" candidate in the posterior.

And so the bloodletting is at full flow. Ain't it fun?

[se72748]

02:07 PM on 01/16/2012

Wah wah wah.Grow up Santorum ,you big baby.If you cannot take the abuse of a campaign how do you expect to take the rigors of the presidency.Do America a favor ,shut up and go home.

[realwoman8]

02:41 PM on 01/16/2012

Yes, and the sooner the better -- although I will kind of miss making fun of him once he does bail.

[janalyce]

07:19 PM on 01/16/2012

I thougt the same thing about Cain. I loved it when he "suspended" his campaign because he just couldn't handle being called names.

An interesting contrast to the guy who's been called a Nazi, atheist, Muslim, jihadist, communist, baby-killing Kenyan witch doctor.....and who through all that, just calmly kept on with his campaign.

Obama 2012.

[celticfireusa]

01:58 PM on 01/16/2012

Wait till Obama attack dogs go after you !

[Lou on Vancouver Island]

06:18 PM on 01/16/2012

By the time the election rolls around, the last Republican standing will be a tattered coat upon a stick, a hollow man blowing away in the winds of democracy.

Thanks, TS Eliot

[celticfireusa]

07:31 PM on 01/16/2012

To dream is a gift of god.........

[dencuddy]

10:25 AM on 01/16/2012

It always cracks me up when Santorum talks about when he left the senate, he was voted out in a landslide, it wasn't his decision.

The man is delusional.

[Lou on Vancouver Island]

06:19 PM on 01/16/2012

He and Newt have a lot in common. Rejects.Which one is more dangerous? I'd prefer Newt's selfishness and greed to Rick's papal goals of dictating what people do in their bedrooms.

[jrgilb0729]

09:55 AM on 01/16/2012

How can Mitt tell the PAC to take down the ad and not be guilty of coordinating with them?

[legitane]

09:07 AM on 01/16/2012

AS pathological liar being criticized by Pinnochio ...

[brunochamp]

01:07 AM on 01/16/2012

As a Republican, I am sick and tired of this religious fruitcake Santorum. The man belongs to a break away Catholic church that thinks the Roman Catholic Church is not Roman Catholic enough for them. They think the last legitimate Pope was Pius XII. This man and his supporters would love to see a theocracy in American. If you can't stand the heat, Rick, get out of the kitchen.

[prawn259]

09:38 AM on 01/16/2012

Opus Dei is the same cult Mel Gibson belongs to... the one where everyone who doesn't follow them is going to hell... Mel informed us that his wife would be going to hell, but not him... this was after announcing his girlfriend was pregnant. She'll be going to hell too. Then he called a cop "sugartits" and went on an anti-Semitic rant that destroyed his career. But everyone else is going to hell. I'm seeing a lot of that same self-righteousness in Santorum.

[drwtsn]

12:02 AM on 01/16/2012

Ricky has a point. If Mitt is not able to circumvent the law (in this case, non-coordination of candidates with super PACs) then he is definitely not qualified to be a Republican president.

[janalyce]

07:20 PM on 01/16/2012

Nice one! Dirty tricksters, unite!

[fairandbalanced100]

10:21 PM on 01/15/2012

The amount of money spent by outside PAC groups has jumped by big amounts since the
supreme court made it legal by 5 to 4 vote , with 5 conservative judges for it & 4 liberal judges
against it. In order to overturn it, we need to re-elect Obama & hope a conservative judge
retires & Obama replaces him with a liberal judge & the supreme court could change their mind .

[se72748]

04:18 PM on 01/16/2012

It seems as if the supreme court is an enemy of democracy.What on earth were the founding fathers thinking when they came up with the idea of appointing supreme court judges for life?

[janalyce]

07:27 PM on 01/16/2012

The idea was that they wouldn't have to be kowtowing to any one group or political party every few years to win elections, and could therefore be truly impartial. Worked pretty good for a long time, too....until the unholy union of the evangelicals and the GOP started pushing the idea that "impartiality" in a SC justice was great unless they needed someone to push through their agenda. Most of the Supreme Court justices of the past would be nauseous at the sight of certain of their modern counterparts going to political events and hobnobbing with those in (and letting their wives work for) obviously partisan political organizations.

[edusa]

10:15 PM on 01/15/2012

Pac money is the only thing that keeps this nut in the primary. He has no shot

[fairandbalanced100]

10:00 PM on 01/15/2012

The Republicans are really ruthless. If they do really tough negative ads on each other, I hate
to see what kind of negative ads they will do to Obama . Romney had some bad negative ads
on Newt & his baggage , which hurt Newt & now Newt has big negative ad on Romney on his
greed & job killing Bane group. The Republicans are killing each other with the negative ads.
Obama can use those negative ads against the Republican that wins the primary.

[raymax419]

09:50 PM on 01/15/2012

RICK, THE ANNOINTED ONE, SHOULD CONCEDE TO MITT TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY. Rick is not a presidential caliber, not even an aura of leadership and management skills. He will be beter off as a pastor defending the thousands of molested kids.

[fairandbalanced100]

10:04 PM on 01/15/2012

None of the Republican candidates are presidential caliber , which will help Obama .
Rick does seam more like a pastor(like Huckabee) that is more worried about religion
& his prejudice against minorities & gays , than he is about economy.
Mitt has experience at killing jobs at Bane, so he should stick with vulture businesses.

[brunochamp]

01:11 AM on 01/16/2012

yeh because Obama is Presidential caliber. He has proven it by chasing Al Qaeda on the golf courses of the world and saving the economy from Martha's vineyard.

[realwoman8]

11:01 AM on 01/16/2012

There's a difference between Huckabee and Santorum though - Huckabee doesn't seem to be covered with invisible slime like Santorum does. I would leave my kids alone in a room with Huckabee, but my gut instincts tell me they wouldn't be safe with Santorum. He gives off the worst, creepiest vibes ever.

[gonealreb]

09:43 PM on 01/15/2012

We, the people, have been telling you, the corporations, that this was a bad idea since the Citizens United ruling, but have you done anything about it? Noooo. In the rush to allow Corporations to elect the President in 2012, nothing was done for we, the people.

Get over it, Citizens United will be the force behind the election, good luck trying to pick the lies out from the half-truths. 50% of the voters will take every word in the SuperPAC ads as truth, just as they do when watching FOX or MSNBC. Huff Post will be full of quotes from the ads, true or not, as will all of the other U.S. blogger sites.

[brunochamp]

01:12 AM on 01/16/2012

why is it you people always blame corporations but you never blame big labor or the trial lawyers?

[gonealreb]

01:30 AM on 01/16/2012

Labor Unions are Corporations as are most trial lawyers and banks and professional groups like the one I'm forced to contribute to which, much to my disdain set up a SuperPAC last week.

[JDSept]

10:22 AM on 01/16/2012

Why is it the other side always blames unions, trial lawyers (GOP uses them when need be) and enviornmental groups? Not politics now is it?

[michaeligou]

09:42 PM on 01/15/2012

Rick puts me to sleep.

[realwoman8]

11:02 AM on 01/16/2012

And gives me nightmares!

[D ADLER]

09:42 PM on 01/15/2012

A few observations here:

First, it is rather gratifying and amusing to see that it's the most far-right republicans who are now doing all the squealing about independent PAC ads. When the Citizens United decision was handed down, they were all falling over each other to heap endless praise for the prospect of unlimited corporate-funded campaign advertising. Just comical. They are now getting what they asked for and deserve: destruction at the hands of their own monster.

Second, Santorum's claim that the ad is false, is tenuous at best. He did, in fact, vote for allowing convicted felons to vote. While the bill would have not applied to those still in jail, it would, nonetheless allow convicted felons to vote. Santorum's own attack ads in previous campaigns have used similar (and even worse) assertions. Which leads to the final observation...

Rick Santorum has utterly zero business complaining about anyone else's allegedly false attack ads. This is the same guy whose 2006 Senatorial Reelection campaign ran the now infamous "Jail Cell Poker Game" ads against Bob Casey Jr., here, in Pennsylvania. It was after newspaper investigations exposed the completely false assertions made in those ads, that the tide turned so badly against the two term incumbent. Maybe the Romney ad isn't entirely true - if so, this is one former constituent of Rick the ****, who won't shed a single tear for him. His own monster is now turning on him. Good riddance.