National Journal’s Reid Wilson and Politico’s Alex Burns point out that Rick Perry is describing Rick Santorum specifically as a Catholic on the campaign trail. They wonder if he’s using the designation to scare away South Carolina’s Protestants from the former Pennsylvania senator. Here’s the quotation that’s getting the most attention:
“Rick Santorum is a good man. He is a good father. He is a good Catholic. But he hasn’t always been a good conservative. And I make exceptions with his vote for Sonya Sotomayor as a for instance. That is a really liberal jurist that he helped put on track to become a Supreme Court jurist back when he voted to allow her to be on the Appellate Court. I mean, she is pro-abortion, would be my estimation of that. I mean, Obama is a very liberal president and she is reflective of his philosophy. So, I mean, there were 29 conservatives that voted against her. People like Strom Thurmond and Rick voted for her. So the idea that, you know, he is a pure social conservative, this flies right in the face of it … On the fiscal side, Rick, he has a horrid record when it comes to earmarks and defending spending. The idea that you can vote for all those earmarks and call yourself a fiscal conservative is just ludicrous on its face. That is why we have a tea party today. … So like I said, good man, good father and husband, good Catholic, but not always a good conservative.”