Santorum may be down, but is he out?

Those who know him say he has plenty of opportunities.
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
WASHINGTON -- As the head of Pennsylvania's college Republican organization in 1977, Phil English visited Penn State University in search of a particularly promising student who had garnered strong recommendations from Sen. John Heinz's campaign staffers. He remembers finding Rick Santorum in his dorm room. The future senator lived up to the billing.
"This was a guy with a lot of smarts and a very high energy level," said English, now a Republican congressman from Erie, Pa. "Rick was a guy who did not acknowledge limitations."
Now Santorum's once skyrocketing political career faces some very real limitations. He is days away from leaving his U.S. Senate seat after Pennsylvania voters handed him an overwhelming 18-point defeat in the Nov. 7 election.
Yet the Republican's associates and longtime observers insist that the public should not discount him. His short-term prospects are considerable: a new book deal, a spot on a television show, a post with a prestigious think tank, lucrative speaking tours, or legal and lobbying jobs.
Focus on foreign policy
Santorum turned down a request for an interview on his plans, but his public comments in the past several weeks point toward a foreign policy focus. He has vowed to continue to voice his controversial views on the war on terror and America's struggle with "Islamic fascism," a theme that dominated his campaign.
After a brief period of silence following the election, the senator quickly re-emerged in the debate about how to respond to spiraling violence in Iraq. This month, Santorum was one of only two senators to vote against the confirmation of Robert Gates as defense secretary. He also criticized a report released by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, arguing that its emphasis on negotiations with Syria and Iran is foolhardy.
"Iran has been at war with us since 1979, and is today the principal instigator of systematic murder in Iraq," he wrote recently in the National Journal, citing the year when Iranian students seized hostages at the American embassy in Tehran.
"To negotiate a truce with that country at this point would be to negotiate our terms of surrender. This would be seen as an historic defeat for America -- most assuredly, and notably, in the eyes of the radical Islamic world."
Some academics, military strategists and policymakers have criticized such views, arguing that they oversimplify the vast cultural and political differences among America's potential enemies.
But a few Santorum observers say the outgoing senator views himself as being in a similar position as Winston Churchill in the years leading up to World War II. At the time, the British leader had suffered his own political setbacks and was one of only a small number of people calling for a tough stance against the growing threat of Nazi Germany.
Domestic issues
Even if foreign policy dominates Santorum's new job opportunities, some say he will soon return to the domestic and social issues that dominated much of his time in office. He has pointed to his role in crafting the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 as a highlight of his Senate career. One of his final legislative achievements was winning approval of a bill that authorizes 945 billion in spending on autism research and treatment during the next five years.
He also will have no shortage of visible and profitable outlets, from television to books to lectures.
Bill Green, a Pittsburgh political consultant, estimates that Santorum could easily earn about 25,000 for a speaking engagement.
"This guy is going to work," Green said. "He's not going to be out of a job."
His forceful personality also should make him an obvious candidate for a cable television-style debate program.
"He'll have no shortage of offers to join the punditry class," said Christopher Borick, a political science professor and director of the Public Opinion Research Center at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. "I can't think of many people better suited to engage in that kind of forum."
But Borick also says that Santorum's options in the political arena are limited by the size of his electoral loss to Democrat Bob Casey, the biggest defeat of a Senate incumbent in 26 years.