Santorum - Notes

Notes

• ^Note a Santorum campaigned with then-President George W. Bush during his Senate election in 2006, and was commended by the President for his steadfast support of the Bush Doctrine. A full op-ed piece for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was submitted by Santorum articulating his views on foreign policy. He outlined multiple issues regarding the War on Terror, stating, "...the fight against Islamic fascism is the great test of our generation. Leaders are obliged to articulate this threat and to propose what is necessary to defeat it. That is my purpose, and our national calling. The American people have always rallied to the cause of freedom once they understood what was at stake. I have no doubt that they will again."
• Santorum expressed strong support for Donald Rumsfeld, saying he had done a "fine job" as Defense Secretary during his 2006 campaign
• ^Note b Santorum made the declaration of WMDs in 2006, based, in part on declassified portions of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. The report stated that coalition forces had recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions that contain degraded or vacant mustard or sarin nerve agent casings. The specific weapons he referred to were chemical munitions dating back to the Iran–Iraq War that were buried in the early 1990s. The report stated that while agents had degraded to an unknown degree, they remained dangerous and possibly lethal. However, officials of the Department of Defense, CIA intelligence analysts, and the White House have all explicitly stated that these expired casings were not part of the WMDs threat that the Iraq War was launched to contain.
• ^Note c Santorum called the War in Afghanistan "a very winnable operation" in 2012, dismissing efforts for withdrawal by 2014. He similarly criticized President Obama's foreign policy, saying he was "not focused on trying to win the war" in Afghanistan, and said he was against any withdrawal in Iraq in 2012, saying, "We want victory."
• ^Note d According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Santorum himself "encouraged everyone in state politics to help the Green Party earn a spot on the November ballot", with the result that 14 Santorum supporters funded a Green Party petition drive for Carl Romanelli, a railroad industry consultant. Romanelli came up 9,000 signatures short of the total required for ballot access, further hurting Santorum's prospects, as there were no other candidates to siphon away votes from Casey.
• ^Note e On the campaign trail Casey criticized what he called Santorum's “harsh and intolerant” writings, referencing his 2005 book, It takes a Family. Excerpts from Santorum's book were raised by political operatives and reporters during the 2006 campaign, including his quotes on "radical feminism" and his comparison of pro-choice Americans to "German Nazis." John Brabender, an adviser to Santorum's Senate and Presidential races, reflected back on the book's controversies and said Santorum was warned that sections could bring political damage, and Santorum was not willing to change much of it simply to gain moderate supporters.
• ^Note f Santorum wrote a letter to Allegheny County officials asking for his name to be taken off the list of residents included in the homestead exemption. He consistently denied wrongdoing, and said he had made efforts to have his name removed in 2005 and 2006 repeatedly. A Democratic official confirmed that Santorum did make express verbally that he wanted his name off the list, and wrote the letter in 2006 after several attempts verbally. Santorum maintained in his letter that he was legally entitled to the exemption, stating, "My home in Penn Hills is my only residence in Pennsylvania and has always been my primary residence or domicile."
• ^Note g George W. Bush had a 38% approval rating in Pennsylvania in 2006. Mary Isenhour, a Democratic strategist, reflected on Santorum's campaign and his connection to the unpopular president, "In 2006, we were doubly blessed -- we could run against George W. Bush and Rick Santorum"
• ^Note h Santorum had a long and complex relationship with Specter. Santorum says the endorsement was made to ensure Bush's judicial nominees would make it through the Senate, as Specter was then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the White House told Santorum that Specter would be more electable than the more conservative Toomey. Santorum has since defended his decision, saying that Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito would not have been confirmed without Specter's re-election and that those two justices made "a pretty good trade" for the objectionable endorsement.
• ^Note i Santorum won 11 state primaries and nearly 4 million votes, more than any other candidate except Mitt Romney. Santorum topped Romney in polls for a brief period. Feature stories on his rise to frontrunner status include an article in the New Yorker magazine.
• ^Note j Santorum himself said that he was a "nominal Catholic" when he met his wife, Karen.
• By his account, conversations with her father, Dr. Kenneth Garver, a staunch Catholic and pro-life advocate, solidified his understanding and opposition to abortion. He and his wife have since become increasingly religious.
• ^Note k In an editorial to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Santorum stated, "...it is fair to look at a candidate's faith from the standpoint of its moral teachings or, as Catholics say, its "social teaching."
• ^Note l Dickinson School of Law, which opened in April 1834 in Carlisle, merged with Penn State University in 2000.