Spotlight Shines On Late Riser Rick Santorum

By Andrea Seabrook

Published January 5, 2012 at 4:48 PM EST

Then-Sen. Rick Santorum is interviewed after a debate with his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey, in 2006. Santorum later lost the Senate seat to Casey.

Rick Santorum has been upsetting elections from the beginning.

He was only 32 years old when he toppled a seven-term incumbent in a majority Democratic district in western Pennsylvania.

Just four years later, Santorum rode the Republican wave of 1994 into the Senate representing Pennsylvania. And from the beginning, Santorum has stood for unwavering social conservatism, especially on the issue of abortion.

"Give the baby a chance to live," said Santorum while delivering a speech on the Senate floor in 1997.

"This unwarranted, unnecessary, unhealthful, dangerous, brutal, stabbing and killing of a baby who's this far away — three inches away — from its first breath."

His remarks were among the first of many times he would lead the charge against a specific type of late abortion called intact dilation and extraction. Opponents call it "partial-birth abortion."

"Why would you kill your child? Because your child is sick? Because your child might not live long? Why kill your child?" Santorum asked rhetorically during that same debate over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

Santorum's sharp, graphic language was often criticized by Democrats, who argued that the extremely rare procedure was sometimes necessary.

The fight took years with Santorum at the forefront.

I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone, that there is no such society that I am aware of where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.

It wasn't until 2003, after the election of Republican President George W. Bush, that Santorum's partial-birth abortion ban was signed into law.

It was upheld by the Supreme Court the following year. It is perhaps the single biggest accomplishment Santorum points to when he talks about his career in public service.

A Fiscal Conservative, With Exceptions

He also makes the case that he is a fiscal conservative. During his Senate career, Santorum did speak out for balanced budgets, lower taxes and privatizing Social Security.

But he was much more ardent when it came to defending increased funding even as government was running up massive budget deficits.

"If the economy is strong, deficits go away," Santorum argued from the Capitol in 2003.

He strongly supported Bush's request for tens of billions of dollars to continue fighting the war in Afghanistan.

"I think the president believes first and foremost we need a strong economy, and we need to fight the war on terrorism and potentially there are going to be other conflicts that we're going to engage in, and deficits have to take a back seat to that," said Santorum.

Today, this idea that "deficits have to take a back seat" is anathema to the very definition of fiscal conservatism.

It may be the issue where Santorum is most vulnerable in the coming Republican primaries.

Time and again, Santorum supported Bush administration policies that ballooned the deficit. He voted for the Medicare prescription drug program and the No Child Left Behind education bill. He also supported foreign aid.

And every time Bush came back to Congress, asking for more money to fight and build infrastructure in Iraq, Santorum supported him.

"This is money that is absolutely necessary to fund our military effort, as well as to get this country up and going again," said Santorum.

Staking His Record On Conservative Values

Still, it was not on the fiscal issues, but on the social battles that Santorum made his name.

When Democrats and Republicans worked together on the No Child Left Behind Act, Santorum fought for language challenging evolution and supporting the religious doctrine of intelligent design.

When the Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld the right of gay people to marry, Santorum led the charge for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

On the Senate floor in the summer of 2004, Santorum made his case, saying gay marriage is bad for children.

"Society should be all about creating the best possible chance for children to have a mother and a father. And unless our state endorses that, unless our laws enforce that, then I think it's fairly obvious that our culture will not," said Santorum.

The role of government in private life is a place where Santorum may differ with more libertarian conservatives.

"They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, we shouldn't get involved in bedroom, shouldn't get involved in cultural issues, well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone, that there is no such society that I am aware of where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture," Santorum said in a 2005 interview on NPR.

Throughout his time in the Senate, Santorum argued government has an important part to play in shepherding the American culture toward what he called a strong moral purpose.