Libertarians won't like Rick Santorum much. He's both a social conservative and somewhat economically moderate. Since he's been gone from the Senate since 2006, we have to take the Wayback Machine for a spin to get his ACU ratings.
89.7, 89.1, 88.1 sounds like a NPR station guide (or K-LOVE, for that matter), but that's the career ratings for Mitch McConnell, Orrin Hatch and Santorum as olf 2006. We can throw in Bill Frist's 87.8 and John Thune's 87.0, but they ruin the bottom of the FM dial vibe since they have even tenths and 87.7 is the bottom of the FM dial.
That's a rogue's gallery of establishment Republicans save Santorum. Hatch is having to fend off a primary fight from Tea Partiers this year, but he's far from a RINO. Thune was getting some mention as a presidential runner, but that never got too far.
Newt pitched a 90 in his House career if we wind Sir Wayback back eight years further. Yes, the hard-core pundits on the right don't like him, either, but trying to slide Santorum to the left of Newt is a non-starter. Ron Paul had a 82% career rating as of 2006, so he isn't a great pick on that front, although there are often votes where Paul will vote no where the conservative position isn't conservative enough.
90% or close to it still gives political carnivores 10% or so to she-dog at. It doesn't make one so "left on the issues that matter he makes even Mitt Romney look like a red meat conservative", as Ross Kaminsky quotes James Delingpole as saying of Santorum. I guess Romneycare doesn't matter much.
In Kaminsky's case, it seems that the social conservative side has caught his ire, thus requiring sounding like a Delingpolock to make the fiscal conservative trashing.
If we were to ACU Romney, he'd likely be in the 70s as a governor but talking in the 90s as a candidate. He'd likely have been in that high 80s range were he in the Senate for the last decade plus.
We have three flavors of establishment conservative and whatever Ben and Jerry's would dream up (Libertarian Lemon-Lime? Von Mises Fudge Pieces?) for Paul. None are going to be mistaken for a modern American liberal (although Paul and Newt could pass for a classic liberal), and only Paul could earn a RINO lable as he toys with the idea (or at least doesn't clearly preclude it) of turning back into a capital-l Libertarian.
Are any of them paragons of conservative virtue? Santorum on a good day can look like a paragon of virtue (sometimes to a fault), but there are times where the two aren't one and the same.
Pick your flavor and move along. Bachmann Green Tea Party is off the menu and Chicken-Fried Perry Berry can still be requested if you ask the waitress nicely.
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