COMMENTARY | Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum might as well have drawn a big red and white set of concentric circles on his back when he told tea party supporters in Columbus, Ohio, that Republican rival Mitt Romney had been no "hero" savior of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Instead, as reported by CNN, Romney, he said, had "heroically" garnered earmarks to make the Olympics a success, making Romney a hypocrite.
Strong words from a candidate with his own extensive earmark record, an apparent retaliatory effort by Santorum for Romney's new political ad circulating in Michigan. Still, attacking Romney's own call for specific allocations for Washington financial support for the Olympics won't hurt Romney.
But it is definitely a point of weakness for Santorum. It is an area Santorum should leave alone.
Earmarks and Santorum's seeming close relationship with special interest groups, called "pay to play" politics by his opponents and ethics groups, were what then-Pennsylvania state treasurer Bob Casey used against him to unseat the then-senator in 2006. Santorum garnered millions of dollars in earmarks for various Pennsylvania corporations during his tenure in Washington (1995-2007), according to the New York Times. He also voted for one of the most notorious earmarks to pass Congress, the "Bridge to Nowhere" appropriation for then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
And it is that propensity to cater to special interests when appropriating American tax dollars that opens the door to Santorum's ties to lobbying. Santorum went to work as a consultant for the lobbying firm American Continental Group in 2007, after his re-election defeat. That organization's affiliates donated $12,000 to Santorum's re-election campaign in 2005. In an appropriations bill introduced in 2005, Pennsylvania manufacturer Piasecki Aircraft received a $3.5 million grant. The Piasecki family, according to the New York Times, donated $12,000 to Santorum's re-election. Piasecki Aircraft also took on a new client -- American Continental Group.
Santorum's K Street associations while a member of Congress prompted the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to file ethics charges against him in February 2006 for his associations with lobbying interests.
Santorum might want to steer clear of the earmarks issue as much as possible. Because his opponents -- especially Romney, who used the same tactic against Newt Gingrich's lobbying consultancy -- will not.
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