According to Reuters’ Sam Youngman, Santorum told a young man at South Lanes Bowling and Pizza in La Crosse to avoid using the femininely colored ball. “You’re not going to use the pink ball,” the former Pennsylvania senator said. “We’re not gonna let you do that. Not on camera.”

At the prompting of another reporter, Santorum also quipped, “friends don’t let friends use pink balls.”

Very classy, Rick. Do we really want our presidential candidates acting like 14 year old boys?

Michelangelo Signorile has written an interesting piece about how the pink ball comment fits into Rick Santorum’s “bully complex.”

Rick Santorum told conservative radio host Scott Hennen a little bit ago, when asked if President Obama was “pouring gas on our racial fire, over the Trayvon Martin death, said, “It’s clear the president has been not a uniting figure on an issue that, I think many Americans thought he would be. And it’s very tragic and to take a horrible situation like that and inject this issue, which, you know, may be a factor, may not be a factor, but even if it is a factor, it’s one… If it is a factor, it’s obviously one sick man and to use that instead of just saying, as a healing president would do, try to bring people together, but instead try to divide people is really a sad, tragic legacy of this president.”

He also told Laura Ingraham earlier today: “It sounds like a heinous act and condemn it for being a heinous act, but to introduce this type of rhetoric that is clearly meant to bring up these very sensitive issues I just think is out of line for this president. It’s very, very unfortunate that he seizes upon this horrific thing where families are suffering and inject that type of divisive rhetoric and that to me is one of the disappointing parts of what this president has brought to the table.”

It’s a similar chord to one he struck with Hugh Hewitt last Friday, saying, “What I said was that it was a horrible incident, and the president should not try to politicize that incident.”

Santorum’s comments criticizing the president for his remarks on Martin – “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” Obama told reporters last Friday – have gotten little attention, especially compared to Newt Gingrich, who called the president’s words on the topic “disgraceful.” The question of whether Martin’s race played a role in his death – and, by extension, the decision by police not to arrest alleged shooter George Zimmerman, whose lawyer says was acting in self-defense – is a key factor in several investigations into the shooting.

Yet on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Santorum took a much more subdued and conciliatory tone, declining to take a shot of his own when asked if Gingrich was wrong, saying: “Well, all I can say is that, you know, again, there are a lot of people who have very — very perverted views of reality and obviously have — as we see, people who do horrible things for seemingly senseless reasons. And I think it’s hard to generalize from one heinous act something that is — you know, try to make a bigger point out of it. And I think that’s probably what Newt was getting at. And I would just say to the president and to everybody that, you know, we need to focus on being there to be supportive and — for the family that’s going through this tragedy.”

Santorum is not the first politician to address one group in a certain way, and another group in a different way. But he has built his brand on being a straight-talker, a sort of John McCain without the moderate politics. And the difference in the tone was notable.

Read this at Politico.com

Rick Santorum on Monday wore his angry tirade against the media Sunday as a badge of honor, joking that his use of a curse word in an exchange with a New York Times reporter showed he’s “a real Republican.”

Speaking on Fox News Channel this morning, Santorum claimed he was being harassed when he said it was “bull—-” how Times reporter Jeff Zeleny was, in his view, distorting his comments during a campaign rally in Wisconsin while discussing healthcare reform.

At a campaign rally in Wisconsin, which holds the next big GOP primary a week from Tuesday, the former Pennsylvania senator had said that Mitt Romney “is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama” on the issue.

As Santorum was greeting supporters after, Zeleny put this question to him: “You said that Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country. Is that true?

“What speech did you listen to?” an incredulous Santorum fired back.

After Zeleny him again, Santorum jabbed his finger in Zeleny’s direction as he urged him to “stop lying.” Romney is the “worst” on healthcare reform “because he fashioned the blueprint.”

“I’ve been saying it in every speech. Quit distorting my words. If I see it, it’s bull—-. C’mon man, what are you doing?” he said.

Clearly riled, Santorum continued to shake his head and glare at Zeleny even as he interacted with voters along the rope-line.

“What are you guys in the business of doing, reporting the truth? Or are you here to try and spin and make news? Stop it,” he said.

This morning, a more jovial Santorum laughed the incident off while speaking with the crew on “Fox and Friends” on Fox News Channel.

“If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not really a real Republican is the way I look at it,” Santorum said.

“It was just one of these harassing moments. After having answered the question a few times, he sort of comes back with the same old question, the same old spin, I just said, I’ve had enough of this you-know-what.”

The Romney campaign, one week after the “Etch-A-Sketch” storyline blotted out what should have been a favorable news cycle for them, has now seized on the Santorum tirade. One Romney aide called it “angry” and flailing” — a “Tantorum.”

Romney’s team certainly has an incentive to push the idea that Santorum is feeling the heat, as it seeks to rally the party behind the former Massachusetts governor in hopes of bringing the internecine battle to an end.

And more leading conservatives are coming around to Romney. Al Cardenas, the chair of the American Conservative Union, writes in an op-ed for the Daily Caller that “it’s time to unite behind a worthy presidential candidate, build our organization and raise the resources necessary to defeat the liberal electoral machine.”

The endorsement from Cardenas, who also supported Romney in 2008, is as much about the reality of the GOP race as it is about Romney’s credentials. Cardenas writes that it’s clear that neither Santorum, Newt Gingrich nor Ron Paul could win enough delegates to claim the nomination, so their only path is a “contested, anarchic floor fight just weeks before Americans vote.”

Romney, he adds, is an “honorable, worthy, competent, conservative candidate.”

Also endorsing Romney today are California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking Republican in Congress, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a tea party favorite who unseated fellow Republican Robert Bennett in 2010.

Lee said Romney is the one candidate who will be able to win in November and implement policies that “conservatives like me have been fighting for.”

Here’s the CBS video of Santorum’s exchange with Zeleny, followed by a transcript, and Santorum’s comments this morning on Fox News Channel.

Read this at LATimes.com

Rick Santorum would consider being vice president to Mitt Romney, a man he’s consistently attacked during the campaign, he told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody on Monday.

“Would you even consider it?” Brody asked Santorum, after suggesting he might laugh off the question.

Former Sen. Santorum (R-Pa.) responded that “of course” he would think about it because of the magnitude of the election, calling it the “most important race in our country’s history.”

“I’ll do whatever is necessary to help our country,” he said.

If Romney becomes the GOP nominee, it seems unlikely that he would pick Santorum, given the vitriolic attacks the two have exchanged. Last week, Santorum said Romney and the president were so similar on health care that “we might as well stay with what we have,” which the Romney campaign claimed was an implication that he would “rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican.”

Santorum made a similar remark on Sunday when he called the former Massachusetts governor the “worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama,” again in reference to health care.

Still, Santorum fought back against the idea he would prefer Obama to Romney, cursing at reporter from The New York Times who Santorum said distorted his words on the issue.

In the Monday interview with Brody, Santorum pushed the message that he is more concerned about taking back the White House for Republicans than he is about becoming the president.

“I don’t want to be the guy who has to sit with my granddaughter, 20 years from now, and tell stories about an America where people once were free,” Santorum said. “I don’t want to have that conversation.”

Read this at HuffingtonPost.com

Think Progress has slowed the video down to show you exactly how and when they use the President’s image, and what the voiceover says just before he is shown on screen. Take a look:

Here is the full version of Santorum’s Obamaville ad:

Aliyah Shahid, NY Daily News

Rick Santorum is declaring a war… on porn.

The Republican presidential candidate and staunch social conservative wants to ban hard-core pornography. He calls it “toxic to marriages and relationships” in a new statement posted on his official website.

“America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography,” the former Pennsylvania senator writes. “It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking.”

He demands a crackdown on the distribution of hardcore pornography on the Internet, in addition to material on cable/satellite TV, hotel/motel TV, retail shops and through the mail.

What qualifies as “hardcore” remains unclear.

Santorum points to a “wealth of research” showing pornography causes “profound brain changes in both children and adults,” and rips President Obama for not doing enough.

“The Obama administration has turned a blind eye to those who wish to preserve our culture from the scourge of pornography and has refused to enforce obscenity laws,” he writes. “While the Obama Department of Justice seems to favor pornographers over children and families, that will change under a Santorum administration.

The White House hopeful isn’t the first to sign off on such measures this election cycle.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who dropped out of the race in January, previously signed a pledge pushed by influential Christian conservative group, the Family Leader, that among other measures, calls for banning all pornography.

In July, Mitt Romney — Santorum’s rival and GOP frontrunner — refused to sign the pledge. It also stated homosexuality is a choice and health risk, banned gay marriage, and called for appointing faithful constitutionalists as judges.

Romney’s spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said at the time that the oath “contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.”

On Tuesday, Santorum won primaries in the socially conservative states of Alabama and Mississippi. Romney and Santorum are both stumping in Puerto Rico ahead of the U.S. territory’s contest on Sunday.

Read this article at NYDailyNews.com

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s twin wins in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night are almost certain to give him what he has long wanted: A one-on-one race with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

The victories by Santorum came in the political backyard of Newt Gingrich and are likely to symbolically — if not literally — end the former speaker’s hopes in the race.

“The time is now for conservatives to pull together,” Santorum urged in his victory speech Tuesday night from Lafayette, La.

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum greets supporters at the Original Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Monday, March 12, 2012. (AP Photo/The Tuscaloosa News, Dusty Compton)

Gingrich has pledged to remain in the presidential race all the way to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and he still may choose to do that. “He is not going to drop out,” his daughter Jackie Cushman said on MSNBC on Tuesday night. “He is not interested in that.”

But Santorum’s wins on Tuesday are likely to trigger a rallying effect among conservatives, a movement that Gingrich was (barely) able to hold off on Super Tuesday when he won his home state of Georgia. (Aside from his home state, Gingrich has won only one other state — South Carolina — way back on Jan. 21.)

And, no matter what Gingrich does, the numbers from the exit polls in Alabama and Mississippi are a striking sign that Santorum is rapidly emerging as the preferred conservative choice.

Among those who said a candidate’s conservative credentials were the most important attribute in making their choice, 51 percent of Alabamians went for Santorum while just 34 percent voted for Gingrich. In Mississippi, it was 53 percent for Santorum to 34 percent for Gingrich. Roughly one in four Alabama voters said a “strong moral character” was the most important candidate attribute; Santorum took 61 percent to just 7 percent for Gingrich among that bloc.

For all intents and purposes then, the Republican race has narrowed to a two-man race with Illinois, which votes on March 20, looming as the next huge test for both Santorum and Romney.

Polling released over the weekend in Illinois shows Romney with the narrowest of leads over Santorum although it’s unclear whether the positive press coverage the former Pennsylvania senator will receive coming out of Tuesday night’s votes will alter the electoral calculus in the Prairie State.

Romney’s losses in both Alabama and Mississippi will further complicate his campaign’s efforts to focus the race solely on the delegate count, which continues to heavily favor him.

Not that they aren’t trying, of course. “Our goal was to take one-third of the delegates and possibly do slightly better than that,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehnrstrom said on CNN Tuesday night. “I think we will exceed that goal.”

Romney’s inability to win a single Southern state where he has shared the ballot with Santorum and Gingrich coupled with his ongoing struggles with very conservative voters and those who identify themselves as evangelical Christians are sure to provide considerable fodder to Romney’s critics.

It’s impossible for Romney to make the case that his nomination is inevitable when he keeps putting “L’s” on the board. It’s equally difficult for Santorum to argue he can overcome Romney’s delegate edge unless he can win a big, delegate-rich state where Romney is favored.

Still, Illinois will almost certainly be the first state where Santorum gets what he always wanted: a clear shot at Romney. Now he just has to prove he can hit the target.

Read this article at WashingtonPost.com