Rick Santorum's Bizarre Iowa Surge

With the reality challenged Christianist/Tea Party base of the GOP having cycled through candidate after candidate in Iowa only to reject each one after their baggage and unacceptability became all too clear, as the Iowa caucuses commence today, Rick Santorum has bizarrely surged. Now admittedly, Santorum is a least as crazy and uninformed as the typical Christianist/Tea Party member, he may actually benefit from the fact that time for a full disclosure of his unfitness for any elected office has run out. As a result, one of the most clinically insane (and most viciously anti-gay) GOP contenders may finish respectably today. With reports that Santorum is nearly out of money, what it will mean going forward - other than discrediting the reliability of the caucuses - is hard to say. A Washington Post column looks at the phenomenon and the ignorant candidate surging in the polls in Iowa. Here are highlights:

Rick Santorum, the man who has improbably become a contender in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses, was making his closing argument to a sea of TV cameras here on Monday when he swerved into a thicket of Senate trivia. . . . . he went on, that obscure 1913 provision that established the direct election of senators had the side effect of creating “something called cloture.”

It’s not clear why Santorum thought his final pitch to Iowa voters should include a mention of century-old legislative procedure. More clear from the Polk City appearance . . . is that he won’t last long as a top-tier presidential candidate if he doesn’t improve his game.

The “Santorum surge” in recent days has little to do with the candidate himself and everything to do with the fact that he is the last man standing after voters discarded all the rest. There’s little time left to scrutinize Santorum before the Iowa vote — and in his case, that’s an exceedingly lucky thing. Given more time in the spotlight, he would reveal himself as a hard-edged Dan Quayle.

I’ve covered Santorum on and off since his first run for Congress, in 1990, when I was a rookie reporter in Pittsburgh. Months ago, I predicted there would be such a Santorum surge in Iowa. But if and when he receives serious scrutiny, the surge will surely subside.

On Monday, for example, he claimed that he is the only candidate who “has proof that, with a conservative record, they were able to attract independents and Democrats.” And that is why Pennsylvania voters unceremoniously tossed him from office in 2006 by a nearly 18-point margin? An Iowan reminded him of this.

If the surge sustains him past Iowa, he will have difficulty explaining such things as his pledge to make abortion restrictions his first order of business (never mind that nonsense about jobs) or the treason accusation he hurled at Obama on Monday . . .

Scrutiny would also expose Santorum’s attachment to Washington process. . . . He grew particularly impassioned when telling his uncomprehending listeners that “we can take the 9th Circuit and divide it into two circuits.”

In the media throng were journalists from Japan, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and Australia. “They weren’t here last week,” a pleased Santorum told the crowd. Enjoy it, Senator. They won’t be here for long.

In my view, Santorum belongs in an asylum. He is a poster boy for what is wrong nowadays with a Republican Party that has thrown facts, knowledge and sanity out the window.