Romney's Attack Shows He's Desperate, Santorum Hits Back
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum hit back at Mitt Romney on Sunday for criticizing his conservative credentials, saying it showed the former Massachusetts governor's desperation in the face of declining support.
"I mean, for him to suggest that I'm not the conservative in this race, you reach a point where desperate people do desperate things," former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum said during an interview on ABC's "This Week" show Sunday.
Asked if Romney's charge that he acted like Democrats would hurt his campaign, Santorum said, "Well, that's pretty funny for Mitt Romney saying I'm acting like a Democrat. You know, the question I get most often from the national media, are you too conservative..."
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Campaigning in Colorado Tuesday, Romney said Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are "the very Republicans who acted like Democrats." He also sought to downplay threat from his two rivals, saying, "In Newt Gingrich's case, he had to resign. In Rick Santorum's case, he lost by the biggest margin of any Senate incumbent since 1980."
However, Santorum said Romney didn't know how to face another candidate that has come up to challenge his front-runner status. "This time he's having trouble finding out how to go after someone who is a solid conservative, who's got a great track record of attracting independents and Democrats and winning states as a conservative," he said.
The former senator added that Romney ran as a moderate in Massachusetts. "And that's fine. And it's a tough state. And, you know, the people have to do what they have to do to win." But, Santorum went on to say, "I stood up and was for what I was for, and I won four races, I lost one. That's pretty good."
On Saturday, Romney won Maine's nonbinding caucuses with 39 percent of the vote and the annual straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference with 38 percent. The wins gave him some relief after he lost Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri to Santorum the previous week.
"The voters of Maine have sent a clear message that it is past time to send an outsider to the White House, a conservative with a lifetime of experience in the private sector, who can uproot Washington's culture of taxing and spending and borrowing and endless bureaucracy," Romney said after his victories.
Santorum reacted to Romney's wins, commenting, "But that was not a place we were going to compete … I'm out here in California, and we'll be in Washington, and Idaho, North Dakota, Michigan. We're going to spend a lot of time in Michigan and Arizona, and those are up next. And that's where we're really been focusing on."
