Santorum Campaign Press Release - ICYMI: Santorum, the "Sharpest, Most Accomplished, Most Campaign-Savy, and Most Full Spectrum Conservative in a Quarter Century" - Quin Hillyer, National Review Online

Verona, PA - In a feature length piece for the preeminent conservative publication, National Review Online, Quin Hillyer asks the question: "Why Not Santorum?"

In his piece, Hillyer calls Senator Santorum (R-PA) the "sharpest, most accomplished, most campaign-savy, and most full spectrum conservative in a quarter century." He goes on to detail Senator Santorum's policy platform as a "tour de force" and "bold," while pointing out that Senator Santorum is "out-working, out-hustling, and out-slogging everybody else in the field in Iowa." Hillyer outlines the Senator's long history of defying the odds, ousting three Democrat incumbents and winning re-election in a year President George W. Bush lost Pennsylvania to Al Gore.

Why Not Santorum?

By: Quin Hillyer, National Review Online

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282738/why-not-santorum-quin-hillyer

"...Yet could it be that the sharpest, most accomplished, most campaign-savvy, and most full-spectrum conservative in a quarter-century of presidential contests has been in the contest all along, working harder than anybody, making at least as much intellectual sense as anybody, never blowing a debate, and never failing to stand on principle?

The man of the hour could be that perennial underdog, Rick Santorum...

... Well, no. Santorum never stands; he keeps on running. As even the New York Times recently has noted, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania is out-working, out-hustling, and out-slogging everybody else in the field in Iowa, building a campaign organization in an old-fashioned, one-person-at-a-time manner more thorough than any candidate since Jimmy Carter first put Iowa on the presidential map in 1976. His 99-county campaign is probably unprecedented, and his energy is infectious. This week he scored a huge coup with the endorsement of Chuck Laudner, a former Iowa Republican party executive director who is perhaps the most effective conservative operative in the Hawkeye State. Amidst all that, Santorum also has built surprisingly extensive grassroots networks in New Hampshire and South Carolina, with well-liked former congressman Gresham Barrett helping lead his effort in the latter.

Rick Santorum is a man accustomed to beating long political odds. As late as election night in his first race for Congress in 1990, top staffers at the National Republican Congressional Committee weren't even familiar with him - even as returns came in showing that, without a single bit of national party help, he had won an upset victory in western Pennsylvania. Redistricted into a fight with a Democratic incumbent in 1992, he won again. Running for the Senate in 1994, again he was supposed to have no chance, this time against media favorite Harris Wofford, who was thought unbeatable after having erased a 30-point deficit to beat Republican former Gov. Dick Thornburgh in 1991. Running for reelection in 2000, Santorum again was an underdog - but, even as George W. Bush lost Pennsylvania by four points, Santorum won it by seven...

... As almost any conservative will readily acknowledge, Santorum's record of actually legislating on principle is stellar. Almost every conservative interest group rated him highly, with the American Conservative Union's lifetime 88.1 rating for Santorum being typical. Yet those who buy into the media image of him as a saber-rattler without real effect haven't looked at the real record. One doesn't get chosen as Senate Republican Conference Chairman, the party's third-ranking Senate position, if you can't get things done and work well with others. He was a lead Senate author and floor manager of the 1996 welfare reform act, and the author of other successful legislation ranging from various anti-abortion bills to the Iran Freedom and Support Act. Those with longer memories will remember his leadership of the Gang of Seven in the early 1990s that did so much to publicize various ethics breaches in the House, helping set the stage for the historic 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.

Finally, conservatives heavily engaged in the wars over judicial nominations know that even though Santorum wasn't on the Judiciary Committee, he ranked was one of the Senate's two or three most stalwart, and effective, supporters of conservative selections, even when much of the rest of the Republican caucus didn't want to be bothered.

In this campaign, meanwhile, nobody has been more substantive. His major policy speeches on defense and the role of faith in public life were tours de force, and on Friday he added a bold speech on a plethora of social issues. He also enthusiastically embraced House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's spending reforms even when others like Newt Gingrich were trying to distance themselves from it..."