Philadelphia Daily News political cartoonist Signe Wilkinson gives us her latest take on Rick Santorum:

Proving, once again, that there is absolutely nothing Rick Santorum won't blame on the media, he said that the only reason the press is covering the Mark Foley/Congressional page scandal is to divert attention from national security issues and defeat Republicans. Don't believe us? Watch the video, we didn't believe it either:

This morning Don Imus asked Rick Santorum about Bob Woodward's new book State of Denial, Rick immediately started talking about his own book. Imus interrupted Rick to ask if he'd been drinking. When Rick finally realized what Imus was asking about he said, "oh, your talking about me drinking the Kool-Aid?" Here's the video:

On Monday, Leslie Stahl asked Rick Santorum what we could have done differently in Iraq to make the situation better.  Stahl proposed that one option would have been to send in more troops. Rick responded that at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, just as many "field commanders" wanted fewer troops as wanted more troops.

Rick, of course, wouldn't name any of those commanders. But as you can see from the opening paragraph of this Washington Monthly article, Generals Eric Shinseki and Tommy Franks wanted more troops, while Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz believed fewer troops should be used. Does Santorum consider Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz field commanders?

At the end of the clip Rick says he's "been in many briefings where that's been said," we think he may be getting K Street Project meetings confused with military briefings. Watch the clip:

Rick Santorum threw yet another tantrum this weekend and this one was captured on video.

In the following clip Rick gets agitated by a Pennsylvania teacher who tells him she's unhappy that her tax money was used to cyber school his children in Virginia. Rick tells her he pays taxes in Pennsylvania, not Virginia. Does that mean he doesn't pay property taxes on his, uh, second home? During that exchange a passerby yells that he hates Rick's commercials, which prompts an apology from Rick.

After the exchange Rick goes on a tirade about one of his favorite targets - the media. It seems he's upset that they would cover his heated exchange with a constituent. It looks like someone needs a timeout. Watch the video:

The latest Quinnipiac poll showed that Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly disapprove of George W. Bush's job performance and the way his administration has handled Iraq. Rick Santorum, on the other hand, believes that Bush is "a terrific President" and Donald Rumsfeld has done "a fine job" as Defense Secretary. Our new web ad lays it all out in detail. Watch the ad now:

During his speech to the PA Press Club, Rick took a moment to lament the fact that people in America "tend to play politics" with the war on terror. Somehow Rick is delusional enough to believe that he doesn't participate in those games. Anyway, one example Rick gave of what happens as a result of war politicking is that, "good men like Joe Lieberman lose elections because of it, which is a tragedy." Here's the video:

During a speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club, Rick Santorum gave us his quick synopsis of the Crusades and how they relate to what he calls the World War on Islamic fascism. However, it seems that Rick either took a considerable amount of poetic license (the Ottoman Empire was Islamist?) or he might need a history refresher course.

Watch the video. Then, read the column below, in which Capitolwire's Pete DeCoursey fact checks Rick.

It's official, Santorum Exposed is definitely making a difference.

How do you we know, you may ask? We know because Rick Santorum told us. Just days ago Rick not only mentioned us by name, he LIED about us - TWICE.

That's right, at a recent event, Rick mentioned the Lantern Project, the organization responsible for Santorum Exposed. He went on to talk about our TV ads -- which clearly annoy him -- and then he claimed that our "biggest donor" is Barbra Streisand. That is a bald-faced lie.

We're proud that Barbra Streisand chose to support our work, and that she was one of our earliest contributors, but her contribution is not even close to being our largest. We're pretty sure Rick already knows that her donation amounts to less than 0.2% of the total funds we have raised, and that our actual "biggest donor" is a union representing janitors and security officers, nurses, hospital and nursing home employees, home care and public service workers -- again, people we are proud to stand with and count among the supporters of our work. Like all 527 organizations, we disclose that information to the public and it is easy to find online. We're certain Rick has access to the Internet.

But one lie wasn't good enough for Rick. He went on to claim that we have a "radical left agenda." As you know from both our web site and our TV ads, there is absolutely nothing "radical" about our agenda. Our only agenda has always been to expose the extremism, hypocrisy and LIES of public officials like Rick Santorum. We never realized that Rick would make our job so easy by actually lying about us.

But why would Rick lie about us? Do you think it's because we're exposing the facts about him and his record? You'll notice he doesn't say anything to refute the facts in our ads or on SantorumExposed.com -- instead he misrepresents the facts about us and our organization. Perhaps that's because he can't refute the facts about his record, so he has chosen to try to smear us instead. Frankly, we're not surprised.

This morning Rick Santorum appeared on Imus in the Morning to tout the unanimous passage of the Combating Autism Act in the Senate. Deirdre Imus has been a major proponent of the act and Santorum was one of its sponsors.

We were surprised when Deirdre began her questioning of Rick with the following question, "Why did your Communications Director call me asking me if I would write an op-ed piece for the Philadelphia Inquirer, quote, praising your work on the CAA bill?"

Rick answers that he has found it very hard to get the Pennsylvania media to cover his hard work on the bill and says that Deirdre deserves a great deal of credit for her hard work. Deirdre responds by saying she doesn't want credit, she just wanted the bill passed and she hopes Rick isn't looking for her to write an op-ed as a quid pro quo.

Imus later chimed in to say he told Deirdre not to write the op-ed because, "all Senator Santorum is doing, is doing what we're paying him to do."

Here's the video:

On Wednesday Rick Santorum said of this week's Democratic Primary Election in Connecticut:

"The Democrats have shown their true face. They've shown they are the party of cut and run. They are the party of appeasement and retreat."

Then, on Thursday Rick accused Democrats of playing politics with the war on terror. Let us know when your head stops spinning.

Here's the video from Wednesday:

We found it odd, but encouraging when we read last week that Rick Santorum had signed on to a statement saying his office would not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. So, we were less than surprised when we read today that Rick has contacted GenderPAC to tell them that it wasn't really his signature (identity theft really is running rampant these days).

Do you think that the reaction of the religious right wing may have had some effect upon Santorum's ink becoming invisible?

Apparently, things didn't go so smoothly this morning for Rick Santorum's new bus tour. From the Patriot-News' Breaking News Blog:

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's bus tour got off to a bumpy start this morning. Santorum's campaign RV, which features pictures of him and his family, was pulled off the road
after blowing a tire around 11:25 a.m.

The campaign was en route from Armstrong County to Jefferson County on U.S. Route 422 when a loud bang was heard. "I didn't know if somebody was shooting at us," said Santorum, who had just spoken at a fire company in Kittanning.

The RV was left by the roadside for repairs as Santorum and staff rode in cars to the next event.

From the New York Times we learn that Rick Santorum doesn't like it when mere civilians, especially reporters, ride on the senators-only elevators in the U.S. Capitol. Apparently, he even whines like a frustrated child:

Worse, senators sometimes share their moving sanctums with staff members, lobbyists and T-shirt-clad tourists who apparently missed (or ignored or cannot read) the senators-only signs.

Or, double-worse, with reporters.

“No, no, no, c’mon, c’mon,” Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania complained recently as about 10 reporters trailed his colleague Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York onto a senators-only elevator.

Standing outside the elevator, Mr. Santorum complained that “some of the rest of us” need to get on board, too. (He eventually squeezed in.)

Roll Call reports that Rick Santorum has been paying U.S. Senate staffers with campaign and PAC funds.

Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-Pa.) re-election campaign and political action committee have paid a dozen members of his personal and leadership staff more than $82,000 since the beginning of 2005, including more than $42,000 to Senate Republican Conference Staff Director Mark Rodgers and more than $24,000 to Conference and personal office spokesman Robert Traynham, a review of campaign finance records showed.