Sunday, December 22, 2002
The Pennsylvania Republican thought about running for Senate majority leader.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- What counts as political savvy in Washington may not play well in Pennsylvania. Just ask U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.
Santorum, a Republican loyal to the former Senate majority leader who mentored him up the leadership ranks, refused to abandon Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott in the wake of his racially insensitive remarks earlier this month.
As a result, Santorum quietly gained respect from Lott supporters in the Senate who might eventually have backed him in his own run at the leader's job.
But his support for Lott "raised a lot of eyebrows in Pennsylvania," said Jon Delano, a political analyst and professor at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
"Santorum went out on a limb for Lott," Delano said. "Pennsylvania is not Mississippi. There were just a lot of folks who were wondering why Rick was backing Trent Lott so strongly."
Plenty of time
Santorum, who flirted with running for the leader's job for six hours before throwing his vote to Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, may not face fallout in the Senate for failing to abandon Lott.
As the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, Santorum, 44, has plenty of time to smooth over any feathers he may have ruffled before he makes a pitch for a higher leadership post.
He has toned down what analysts call the "brashness" of his House career and first Senate term, and is generally well-liked by his colleagues.
"I don't think any member is going to be hurt if they supported Senator Lott," said Tripp Baird, Heritage Foundation congressional scholar.
"All members know that there was a natural tendency to support their leader."
But Republicans are scrambling to mend fences with the black community and others who were deeply offended by Lott's remarks at a birthday party for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who ran for president in 1948 on the segregationist Dixiecrat platform.
Hate-crime legislation
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., also supported Lott throughout the flap. But he was quick Friday to call on his colleagues to pass hate-crimes legislation that has been languishing in the Senate for years as a way for the Republican caucus "to show greater sensitivity."
"This could have long-term ramifications for the party unless the party acts on it," Specter said. "This has received a lot of attention and these are bringing up to the surface very deep-seated feelings for people. You're talking here about the issue of slavery and then segregation and still a lot of racism, so that people are still very badly hurt by what's gone on here. So I think there are things the party has to do to avoid having this turn into long-term damages."
Santorum has repeatedly opposed plans to expand criminal penalties for hate crimes. He is considered one of the most conservative senators in Washington, and also, at least in the last five decades, in Pennsylvania history. He lost the urban centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in both of his ultimately successful Senate elections in 1994 and 2000.
He is not up for re-election until 2006 -- a date "too far down the line" for many Pennsylvanians to remember Santorum's role in the Lott flap, Delano said.
'Compassionate conservative'
Even so, Santorum appears eager to tout himself as a "compassionate conservative" from a "big-tent Republican Party" -- two themes President Bush rode to victory in 2000.
"I also believe, as my priorities have shown, that the Republican party is an inclusive party," Santorum, paraphrasing the Gettysburg Address, said in a statement released by his office Friday. "Our agenda is a compassionate agenda. And, as Lincoln so eloquently stated, we believe that our nation was conceived in liberty and dedication to the proposition that all men are created equal."