I think Professor R. just needs to get to know Santorum better. Huckabee? No, bad analogy.  I’ve followed Mr. Santorum closely for almost 20 years now. (Can’t confess how I know him, but I do). He’s a Pennsylvanian and Huck is from Arkansas. I think there are a few differences in their perspectives. I was surprised in my local Tea Party in Virginia that people were more conservative than libertarian.

Rick came to Washington on a shoestring and slept in the office. He was just — normal, and he was a small-government guy. I think Glenn would be satisfied with many of his decisions. For example, Rick was the only one who spoke up in the debate about not having Government money to spend on the moon – this is the position that’s closest to Glenn’s on space, I think.

I don’t think of Rick as a fire-breathing get-er-done libertarianish Conservative like Sarah Palin, for example, but he’s decent and reasonable, and he knows real American history. And Obama is not a decent, modest man, and he makes stuff up about us that never happened the way he says it did.

Stacy is right that it is more libertarian to defend the Catholic Church on this issue than the Obama Administration’s position.  But it is hard to defend Santorum as a libertarian when he says stuff like this.  

As for Rick’s past bonafides as a conservative?  

It would be very good if Rick made his economic positions clear.  I believe his current position is not like the wrestling video.  But the hostility against libertarians?  Is that helpful?

In Debbie’s case, I’m for free ball gags.

 Noting with interest you post these cryptic remarks on one of Stacy’s traffic-bait sex topics, I have to wonder if you plan on disclosing your long, sordid affair with Santorum soon, or if you are waiting on a book deal.

Let’s talkl about reality Stacy, we need Rick to explain why he should be captain of this ship…

 Yeah, but if the electorate were rational, Obama would never have won in the first place. 

And while the attack on Rick Santorum are dishonest and mean…they are hardly unique. 

In some ways it’s more important because it’s a constitutional topic — if this “sideshow” is allowed to stand then it will go a long way towards eroding the authority of our Constitution.  Economic hard times come and go (and this economic cycle would have happened no matter who was in office; it’s only been excerbated), but fundamental changes to our rule of law, our government, those could last forever.  And unfortunately we have enough people (and not just “low information voters” — but people who should know better or so they say) who aren’t taking this to heart.

But true enough, this is about the 1st Amendment more than contracepttion.  However, we see that the media lap dogs are still faithful little Lassies and Rovers aren’t they?
And some conservative bloggers are falling right in line (that’s the shameful irony); they are doing the same thing the media is.  This cannot be repeated enough: some of the conservative blogs are just as bad as the regular media about shaping this in Obama’s favor (I guess they would like to sit on a couch with Nancy too.)

As for Santorum, I’ll say it again: he needs to at least talk to the libertarians.  Can somebody more influential please get that through to him before he really does get shot down?  He has to — the left is painting him as some sort of Church Lady and many on the right are more than willing to help them out (and this will backfire — this is what will get us 4 more years of you know who).

No Bob, they just don’t want the government to have inordinate power over the people when it comes to moral issues, just like in any other area. Maybe limited power, but you know how that goes. The more power they get, the more they want. The next thing you know you’ve got another mess on your hands. We’ve always got to be on guard against that.

I don’t recall Rick Santorum ever calling the Club for Growth the Club for Greed.  Insty’s comments are a greater reflection of how libertarians don’t quite get that not all conservatives, especially social conservatives, are built the same.  The fact that Mike Huckabee is an Evangelical while Santorum is a Catholic is not an incidental difference.  I would recommend Insty google the term “subsidiarity” to understand why Catholic conservatives might be less inclined to desire an active central government.

Smitty – Not to be parsimonious, but John 6:66.  Hmmmm…666…

As much as I love the father of the Army of Davids, if we were to decriminalize pot, the term “libertarian” would evaporate from the English language.

Huckabee had charm?

Maybe it is a case of loving liberty so much that the negative aspects of their own ideology, if it gets taken too far, are things they forget to think about.

Libertarianism isn’t a bad thing, but even a good thing if not moderated can wind up being very bad — this seems to be forgotten with everybody vis a vis their pet ideology.

Luckily, I don’t subscribe to any ideology.