Rising Santorum targeted by GOP rivals in Iowa

Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia Sen. Rick San­to­rum speaks dur­ing a cam­paign appear­ance at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Sat­ur­day, Dec. 31, 2011, in Knoxville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

BETH FOUHY, THOMAS BEAUMONT

Asso­ci­ated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Surg­ing into top-tier con­tention, Repub­li­can Rick San­to­rum came under sharp crit­i­cism from rivals hop­ing to slow his momen­tum two days before Iowa’s kick­off cau­cuses. The for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia sen­a­tor defended his record in Wash­ing­ton and cast him­self as the most elec­table con­ser­v­a­tive alter­na­tive to front-runner Mitt Romney.

Polls showed Rom­ney poised for a pos­si­ble vic­tory Tues­day in Iowa and Texas Rep. Ron Paul not far behind. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Min­nesota Rep. Michele Bach­mann tried to make their case Sun­day to peel con­ser­v­a­tive votes away from San­to­rum, whose metic­u­lous cam­paign­ing across Iowa and woo­ing of social con­ser­v­a­tives appeared to be pay­ing div­i­dends at the fin­ish line.

“He’s got a spend­ing prob­lem, he’s got an ear­mark prob­lem, he voted eight times to raise the debt ceil­ing in the United States Sen­ate,” Perry said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Bach­mann noted on the same broad­cast that San­to­rum was soundly defeated when he ran for re-election in 2006, los­ing by a 59–41 mar­gin to Demo­c­rat Bob Casey.

Santorum’s cam­paign debuted a TV ad in Iowa that por­trayed him as “a trusted con­ser­v­a­tive who gives us the best chance to take back America.”

Join­ing rivals on the Sun­day talk shows, San­to­rum was pressed to say whether he believed Rom­ney had con­ser­v­a­tive val­ues. San­to­rum said any of the Repub­li­can can­di­dates would be more con­ser­v­a­tive than Pres­i­dent Barack Obama.

“The ques­tion is, are those val­ues ones that you can trust when they become pres­i­dent of the United States?” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

San­to­rum defended his sup­port for home-state spend­ing projects, or ear­marks, say­ing he was elected in part to bring fed­eral money to Pennsylvania.

“I don’t regret going out at the time and mak­ing sure the peo­ple of Penn­syl­va­nia — who I was elected to rep­re­sent — got resources,” San­to­rum said. But, he added, “I voted for some things that I look back and say, ‘Why the heck did I do that?’”

San­to­rum planned sev­eral cam­paign stops in west­ern Iowa later Sunday.

Rom­ney, who attended ser­vices at a Mor­mon church in West Des Moines, was set to appear in Atlantic and Coun­cil Bluffs as he works to max­i­mize the edge he holds in crit­i­cal areas rather than risk under­per­form­ing in places where more ardent con­ser­v­a­tives are leery of his faith and shift­ing posi­tions on social issues.

A new Des Moines Reg­is­ter poll found Rom­ney with 24 per­cent sup­port among likely vot­ers in Iowa while Paul had 22 per­cent. San­to­rum place third with 15 per­cent, fol­lowed by Newt Gin­grich, with 12 per­cent, and Perry, with 11 per­cent. Bach­mann had just 7 per­cent support.

The poll’s mar­gin of sam­pling error for the full four days was plus or minus 4 per­cent­age points. For the last two days, it was plus or minus 5.6 per­cent­age points.

The poll showed San­to­rum gain­ing ground and Paul slip­ping a bit as rivals ham­mered him on his non­in­ter­ven­tion­ist for­eign pol­icy views.

Paul, who spent the week­end at his home in Texas, stood firm on his con­tention that the U.S. should not bomb Iran if the coun­try is devel­op­ing a nuclear weapon.

“I would say that we just need to be more cau­tious. I think if we over­re­act and par­tic­i­pate in bomb­ing Iran we’re look­ing for a lot more trou­ble,” Paul told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

San­to­rum said that if he were pres­i­dent, he would bomb Iran’s nuclear facil­i­ties unless they were opened for inter­na­tional arms inspectors.

Gin­grich, bat­tered by neg­a­tive TV ads from rivals and a pro-Romney super polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee, was fight­ing to stay in con­tention after top­ping the field in Iowa just weeks ago.

“Rom­ney would buy the elec­tion if he could,” the for­mer House speaker told reporters after attend­ing Mass in Des Moines with his wife, Callista.

Gin­grich said he was encour­aged by one find­ing in the new poll — that 41 per­cent of vot­ers could change their mind about who to support.

Indeed, with many fac­tors at play, the dynam­ics can shift rapidly.

Yet two things were clear on the final week­end before the cau­cuses: The year­long effort to estab­lish a con­sen­sus chal­lenger to Rom­ney had so far come up short, and Romney’s care­fully laid plan to sur­vive Iowa may suc­ceed because con­ser­v­a­tive vot­ers had yet to unite behind one candidate.

Bach­mann redou­bled her effort woo evan­gel­i­cals Sunday.

She took to the pul­pit at Jubilee Fam­ily Church in Oskaloosa, where for more than 30 minute she guided the con­gre­ga­tion to sev­eral favorite Bible pas­sages and shared her tes­ti­mony for giv­ing her­self over to God as a teenager in Minnesota.

“The Holy Spirit cleansed me and gave me a peace I’d never before had in my heart,” she said

Perry had no cam­paign events planned after attend­ing church in West Des Moines. He was to travel to Greenville, S.C., the day after the cau­cuses, bypass­ing next-up New Hamp­shire, which holds its pri­mary Jan. 10. He intended to par­tic­i­pate in two debates in New Hamp­shire next weekend.

Cam­paign­ing alone in New Hamp­shire, for­mer Utah Gov. Jon Hunts­man said it would be that state that sends a mes­sage about which can­di­date is most elec­table. He is skip­ping the Iowa con­test and has made mod­est inroads in New Hamp­shire after months near the bot­tom of the polls.