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:

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.

As you may have read recently, Rick Santorum has been distributing a flyer titled, "50 Things You May Not Know About Rick Santorum." On Comedy Central's Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart decided to give a little quiz to see just how much we all know about Rick. Watch the very funny video:

On The Daily Show last night, Lewis Black mocked Rick Santorum's grasp on reality. Click below to watch the video:

Survey USA has released their latest poll on the job performance approval of U.S. Senators. Once again, Rick Santorum is in last place. 36% of respondents approve of Rick's job performance, while 55% disapprove. The 36% approval rating ties Rick's previous low, set just last month.

You're doin' a heckuva job, Ricky.

On MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann eviscerated Rick Santorum's recent claim that weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Watch the video:

Click image to watch clip

The Latest Quinnipiac poll has Rick Santorum's job approval rating at 38%, the lowest number they've ever recorded for him. Congratulations, Rick. Here's how the Associated Press puts it:

Only 38 percent of the respondents said they approved of the way Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, is handling his job. Forty-five percent said they disapproved and 16 percent did not express an opinion.

It was the first time the senator's approval rating had dropped below 40 percent since Quinnipiac began measuring it in June 2002. It also was the latest sign of distress for the outspoken conservative, an ally of President Bush on issues that included a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and private savings accounts for Social Security.

The Philadelphia Daily News reports that Rick Santorum went to Geno's in South Philadelphia to show his support for the sign they have posted instructing customers to order in English. Apparently Rick believes that it's very important that people who want cheesesteaks speak English.

We're not sure why Rick believes that cheesesteak ordering should be English-only. As you can see from this Philadelphia Inquirer article, Rick's own web site provides information in Spanish.

If Rick believes that it is important for Geno's customers to speak English, then why doesn't he believe that visitors to his web site should have to read about him in English? Perhaps the more important question is, what does Rick really believe?

The Philadelphia Inquirer's John Grogan writes a column about the young women who were ejected from a Rick Santorum book signing last year and have now filed suit claiming that their constitutional rights were violated.  Here's how Grogan sums up the larger issue that this incident illustrates:

All right, you might be thinking, this was an event on private
property and Santorum was appearing less as a U.S. senator than as an
author - on hand to promote his book, It Takes a Family. You might be saying, "Who cares if they kicked the troublemakers out? Why should they be allowed to make the senator squirm?"

The only thing is, they weren't troublemakers. They were not rowdy
or disrespectful. They just wanted to ask the senator some pointed
questions.

That's what we do here in America. We challenge and debate; we
question authority; we speak our minds. At least when bully cops aren't
sweeping us out of the room.

And that is what's troubling about this incident. It's part of a
bigger pattern of politicians, or their agents, weeding crowds of any
but the most enthusiastic cheerleaders.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gets right to the heart of the matter in terms of the controversy over Rick Santorum's residency:

"He doesn't live here anymore."

We noticed something interesting while watching a KDKA-TV story about the controversy surrounding the home that Rick Santorum owns in Penn Hills. Rick claims that he stays there when he's in Pennsylvania, and his mother-in-law recently told KDKA that the Santorums spent five days there last week. But, if you look at the two pictures below, it doesn't look like the lawn has been mowed in quite some time. Do you think Rick didn't have time to mow it or do you think he just didn't notice how long it had gotten?





For comparison's sake, here's a shot of the Santorum lawn in Virginia looking very tidy.

Apparently the house that Rick Santorum owns in Penn Hills, PA is now vacant (it was previously rented out to family members). However, you shouldn't try to confirm that yourself because the police have stepped up patrols in the area of the house based on reports of trespassers. Here's the story from KDKA-TV

Rick Santorum has received yet another distinction. A Survey USA poll released yesterday puts Rick's job approval rating at 39% and his disapproval rating at 53%.

This poll makes it official, Rick Santorum is now the least popular member of the U.S. Senate. Congratulations, Rick.