A thinly-veiled attack campaign against Sen. Rick Santorum's re-election is being conducted by an unlikely group.
The group of pro-abort GOP-ers called Republicans Majority for Choice, whose advisory committee includes fellow Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter, Sen. Lincoln Chafee and Sen. Susan Collins, has released full page "Help Wanted " ads in major Pennsylvania newspapers that seek "Real Republican Candidates for Senate."
Veteran Washington reporter Robert Novak wrote, "The ad does not mention Santorum by name, but there is no question of the target when it attacks 'candidates who claim to be Republicans but instead use the party to further their own personal or religious agenda.' In requesting 'real Republican' Senate candidates, the RMC attacks the GOP's 'drift toward extremism.' "
These ads carry even more sting because Santorum has also been under fire from fiscal conservatives for raising the Pennsylvania minimum wage and was the target of a recent psuedo-scandal involving his home mortgage rates.
The American Spectator reported that, "Jennifer Blei Stockman, national co-chair of the RMC, confirmed that while the group is targeting Santorum, its strategy looks past the March 7 filing deadline. She told TAS Thursday that her group had 'exhausted' all possibilities for candidates in the past several months. While RMC hopes another candidate 'surfaces,' Stockman said, 'The ad is meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that we cannot continue electing candidates like Rick Santorum because he's not helping the party's image.'"
Santorum, however, is one of the leading Senate members on social security reform, an issue that dearly needs to be invigorated during midterm elections. If Santorum can develop a winning plan to bring that debate back to life it would certainly fare well in marginalizing his pro-life opponent and bringing grass-roots support to his campaign.
Republican moderates aren't doing him any favors working hand-in-hand with the banks of NOW and NARAL in this recent campaign. Santorum isn't going to win them over on his pro-life stance, but if he can get social security reform back he'll have every smart, young American that wants their fair share of a paycheck on his side.
