Michigan — Mitt Romney, clearly pleased with both his performance and Rick Santorum’s in the Arizona debate, attacked Santorum’s pro-life credentials, saying that Santorum has a history of supporting pro-choice Arlen Specter that long predates the 2004 Senate race.
“Now at the last debate — and that was a fun debate, I’ve got to tell you,” Romney said today, before quoting Santorum’s explanation that he “[took] one for the team” when voting for No Child Left Behind.
Romney seemed determined to undermine Santorum’s credibility among his core pro-life supporters, although he also criticized the senator on other votes. “There was also in 1996 when he supported Arlen Specter . . . He supported the pro-choice candidate, Arlen Specter,” Romney said, against a pro-life candidate, Bob Dole. “This taking one for the team, that’s business as usual in Washington.”
A coalition of pro-life groups is conducting a bus tour throughout Michigan supporting Santorum, though. “The people who know Rick and have followed him over the years say he’s really the hero on these [pro-life and traditional marriage] issues,” Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage. told The Washington Examiner before a “Rick Bus” event on Santorum’s behalf in Hillsdale, Mich.
