Adlai Stevenson famously said of Richard Nixon that he was “the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” I can’t help but think that ol’ Tricky Dick is looking at Rick Santorum with admiration for the way that Santorum is trying to use the issue of military bases closures in Pennsylvania to his advantage. As reported in the Pocono Record, Santorum vowed to oppose further base closures when he was running for the Senate in 1994, but completely flip-flopped on the issue after he was elected (so much for Santorum’s much-ballyhooed commitment to his principles…)

Since 1999, Santorum has been a vocal advocate for more military base closures, even though most Democratic and Republican legislators from Pennsylvania opposed another round of base closures because of the likelihood that Pennsylvania would lose thousands of jobs.

Not surprisingly, the latest round of military base closures threatens to cost 1200 jobs in the Philadelphia suburbs and 700 jobs outside Pittsburgh. If I were Santorum, I’d be too embarrassed to go anywhere near these bases. But the man has no shame. He’s been traveling around the state pledging to use his influence with the Bush Administration to reverse the closures. In other words, he’s positioning himself to look like the white knight if he is successful in preventing job losses that he was responsible for creating in the first place.

Thankfully, some of the people most affected by the base closures are beginning to get wise to Rick’s tricks.