Santorum In Memoriam

David Brooks' obituary for Rick Santorum's Senate career in the Sunday New York Times all but nominated the two-term Pennsylvania senator for political martyrdom. "After Election Day," Brooks wrote, "the underprivileged will probably have lost one of their least cuddly but most effective champions."

I'm not sure what unholy bargain Brooks brokered with his editors to write such blasphemy, but here are a few of Saint Santorum's legislative "accomplishments" that Brooks conveniently omitted.

Santorum voted 12 times against raising the minimum wage, trapping millions of American families in poverty. In fact, just after Santorum sponsored an amendment to deny a wage hike to restaurant workers, executives from Outback Steakhouse, among the amendment's biggest backers, hosted a fundraiser for him. (Santorum flew to the fundraiser on the Wal-Mart corporate jet.)

There are many more examples. He voted against the Family and Medical Leave Act. He introduced legislation to kill the 40-hour workweek. He supported efforts to gut overtime pay protections. And David Brooks thinks Rick Santorum is an "effective champion" of the underprivileged and struggling families?

The right can try to cast Santorum in the martyr role all they want. But Santorum's immoral voting record and downright un-Christian rhetoric have lifted the curtain and exposed him as a national embarrassment. And David Brooks aside, voters are tired of Rick's shtick.