Who said they could?
"Risking union ire, Romney slams Santorum’s labor votes" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, February 17, 2012
Mitt Romney is taking an antiunion stance in Michigan, attacking Rick Santorum for his “unapologetic defense of big labor’’ as part of a new attempt to paint his rival as beholden to a powerful Democratic ally.
Romney is seizing on votes Santorum took in the Senate against national right-to-work legislation and in support of the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires government contractors to pay the prevailing wage. Both votes reflected the positions of organized labor....
Romney’s campaign, meanwhile, blasted out memos calling Santorum “big labor’s favorite senator.’’
Also see: Romney Campaign Going to the Dogs
Yeah, it really is.
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Santorum’s own labor credentials are mixed. Although he has sometimes sided with unions, he has more often voted against their wishes. Santorum voted with labor only 13 percent of the time, according to the AFL-CIO....
Santorum has explained his 1996 vote against right-to-work legislation by arguing that, as a senator from Pennsylvania, he did not want the federal government to trample the state’s laws supporting unions.
“I wasn’t, as United States senator representing the state of Pennsylvania, going to go down and, by federal vote, change the law on the state,’’ he said on “Fox News Sunday.’’ “I believe the state has the right. If they want a union dues requirement, the state should be able to do that.’’
But he said his position has now changed.
“As a president, I [would] have a very different point of view,’’ he said. “I would sign a national right-to-work bill because now, I’m no longer representing that state.
“And by the way, the same thing with respect to Davis-Bacon,’’ Santorum added....
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"Santorum’s income in 2011 rose to $3.6m" Associated Press, February 17, 2012
WASHINGTON - Rick Santorum grew wealthy over his four years working as a corporate consultant and media commentator after leaving the Senate in 2006, his newly released federal tax returns show. He made more than $3.6 million and drove an Audi luxury sedan - details that could be at odds with his effort to attract blue-collar voters in the GOP’s upcoming presidential primary in Michigan.
Santorum, 53, has presented himself in the Republican primaries as both a social conservative and a Washington outsider, stressing his family’s coal-mining background and his appeal to religious and working-class voters.
His personal finances detail the trajectory of a politician who became a millionaire, at times by capitalizing on his Beltway connections....
What a scum!
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