Santorum and Romney Pander to Wisconsin Wingnuts

I hope women and moderates are paying attention to the rhetoric of Mitt "Etch A Sketch" Romney and Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum in Wisconsin. I also hope the Obama campaign has crews out catching video clips of the ultra far right social positions being taken by both of these GOP presidential contenders. Which ever is the ultimate winner, he needs to be forced to account for some of the batshitery now being spewed. The Los Angeles Times looks at the contenders in their Wisconsin campaign and the aspects of their positions which hopefully will come back to bite them in the ass come November. One is either an actual extremist - i.e., Santorum - or a flip flopping liar with no core beliefs whatsoever - i.e., Romney - other than saying whatever is perceived to be most expedient at the moment. Here are some story highlights:

For Republicans, Wisconsin and its embattled governor have come to symbolize the danger of lurching too far to the right in a presidential battleground state. Now, the party's top White House contenders are running the risk of making the same stumble as Tuesday's primary nears.

The prominence of divisive social issues — rather than a tight focus on jobs and the economy — in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has delighted Democrats looking ahead to November. They hope that Republican scuffles over birth control will turn off independents, particularly women.

Democrats are already on the offensive, leading a recall drive against the state's Republican governor, Scott Walker. Their campaign against him was sparked by Walker's high-drama conflict with public-employee unions, a clash that has galvanized organized labor nationwide.

At the same time, Wisconsin's best-known Republican congressman,Paul D. Ryan, has become a national target for Democrats, who have cast his proposed budget cuts as a threat to the survival of Medicare coverage for the elderly.

The stakes for Wisconsin's primary are high, especially for Santorum. . . . . If the pattern holds, the former Pennsylvania senator will suffer another letdown, diminishing his already slim prospects for winning the nomination.

Romney, who has been prospecting for campaign money in California and Texas this week, is outspending Santorum on advertising in Wisconsin by nearly 5 to 1, according to NBC News. Santorum has tried to compensate by dashing around the state to drum up free news coverage with withering attacks on Romney.

Along the way, Santorum has tried to project an image as blue-collar Everyman — a tart contrast with Romney, a Harvard-educated former investment executive who reported nearly $21 million in income last year. (Santorum stays quiet about his entry into the ranks of $1-million-a-year earners in the years since his home state bounced him from the Senate.)

With the recall vote just over two months away, Santorum's pledge of solidarity with Walker is one of his main applause lines. "I will do everything I can that Gov. Walker wants me to do to make sure that he sustains this recall," Santorum told supporters at a rally at a banquet hall in Bellevue.

Once Romney arrives in Wisconsin on Friday, he too will declare his allegiance to the governor who has most infuriated organized labor, a powerful force against whoever becomes the Republican presidential nominee. Romney plans to drop by a Walker campaign phone bank outside Madison.

On Saturday, Romney plans to join Santorum and Newt Gingrich in Waukesha at a Faith and Freedom Coalition forum. The gathering of Wisconsin conservatives will be fraught with temptation for the presidential candidates to offer Republican primary voters still more of what will likely cause trouble for the party's nominee in the fall.