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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Pres. Obama Economy Speech in Cleveland

President Obama Announces Recess Appointment for CFPB Director
Pres. Obama Economy Speech in Cleveland




Cleveland, Ohio
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
President Obama announced at a speech in Ohio that he will make a recess appointment and place Richard Cordray in the position of Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Last month, Senate Republicans did not allow his nomination to move forward.
This is the agency that was formed as part of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul legislation.
The President's remarks took place at Shaker Heights High School in Ohio.
Ohio is set to hold its primary March 6 and the President's visit will mark his 16th trip to the state. He traveled to Ohio in September to garner support for his jobs plan.
The speech is the president's first since returning from a more than week-long vacation in Hawaii for the holidays.


Obama's consumer chief appointment could spark legal spat


January 4, 2012 7:10 PM
By
Mark Knoller


Barack Obama, Richard Cordray
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Richard Cordray
(Credit: AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
 
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The words "recess appointment" didn't pass President Obama's lips here today as he made it clear he would no longer wait for Senate confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Instead Mr. Obama appointed Cordray to the post - in an action that circumvents the Senate process of Advise and Consent.
His aides claim the Senate was in recess and so Mr. Obama could use his constitutional powers to install Cordray in the job as a recess appointment.
Whoa!, yelped Republican congressional leaders. The Senate's not in recess, they said. In fact, it's been holding pro-forma sessions every 3 or 4 days. They pointed out that it was during one of those pro-forma sessions on December 23, with only 2 members of the Senate on the floor, both Democrats, that the Senate approved by unanimous consent, the bill Mr. Obama wanted to extend the 2011 payroll tax cut for two months into the New Year. Mr. Obama got to sign it into law three hours later before departing to join his family in Hawaii for 11 days.
Back from the Aloha state, Mr. Obama decided Wednesday to show the nation his patience had run out since using a Rose Garden ceremony in July to announce his nomination of Cordray to run the banking watchdog agency.
Later in the day, the White House announced the president's recess appointments of three nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.
The White House says it has legal opinions to validate the claim that the Senate was in recess.
"The president's counsel has determined that the Senate has been in recess for weeks and will be in recess for weeks," said spokesman Jay Carney during an airborne briefing on Air Force One, en route to Ohio.
"The Constitution provides the president the right to make appointments during Senate recesses, and the president will use that authority to make this appointment.," Carney said.
Carney said the president had similar validation in a legal opinion written by the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration.
It was that same Office of Legal Counsel that the Obama White House cited last spring when it announced Mr. Obama, in France, had authorized his staff secretary back at the White House to sign a bill into law by running it under the Autopen, the mechanical device that can produce a reasonable facsimile of the president's signature.
The Constitution requires that the president "sign" a bill to make it law. It provides no exception for the use of a substitute device or person.
Similarly, the Constitution does not designate the president, or anyone in the executive branch, as the arbiter of whether either chamber of Congress is in recess.
No one has yet challenged the use of the Autopen to sign legislation into law, though it's an issue that cries out for a Supreme Court ruling.
But a challenge is certain to be filed against the recess appointment of Richard Cordray and whether it was made when the Senate was genuinely in recess.
"I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate," said Speaker of the House John Boehner of the Cordray appointment, in a rapid response to the president's action.

Perry staying in race, holding out for "actual primaries"

January 4, 2012 12:28 PM
By Lucy Madison



Rick Perry pauses on caucus night Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa, while announcing his decision to "reassess" his campaign. (Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Updated: 1:03 p.m. ET
Rick Perry on Wednesday said he will take his Republican presidential bid to the South Carolina primaries, despite speculation he would suspend his campaign in the wake of a disappointing fifth-place finish in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.
In remarks to reporters in West Des Moines, Iowa, the Texas governor called the Iowa caucusing process "loosey goosey" and said he was looking forward to competing in "actual primaries."
"This wasn't a hard decision," Perry said. "[Iowa] is a quirky place, a quirky process to say the least and we're going to go into places where they have actual primaries and there are going to be real Republicans voting."
"I'm excited about getting out with real Republicans and laying out --- and not that there aren't Real republicans here in Iowa, but the fact it is was a pretty loosey goosey process and you had a to of people who were there that admitted they were Democrats voting in the caucuses last night," he continued.
Earlier on Wednesday, Perry indicated his decision via a post on Twitter.

"And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State...Here we come South Carolina!!!" he tweeted.

The Palmetto state is key for Republican primary voters. Since 1980, the winner of the South Carolina primary has gone on to win the Republican nomination every time.
The candidate, who earned just 10 percent of the vote in Iowa Tuesday night after spending millions of dollars campaigning there, announced last night that he would be returning to Texas to "reassess" the best way forward for his campaign, fueling speculation he would drop out.
Perry communications director Ray Sullivan said Tuesday night that the campaign would be considering donor and grassroots support, as well as the South Carolina field, when deciding the path forward. He also said not to expect an official decision before Thursday.
Ultimately, it could come down to money. Many believe Perry would have an edge among southern voters, and a strong South Carolina finish could give the longtime Texas lawmaker a much-needed boost in momentum
and financial support. But the candidate spent heavily in Iowa with little return; whether or not he will be able to bring in enough cash to sustain his campaign going forward remains to be seen.
Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.

Looking forward to New Hampshire in 7 days


Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



Rick Santorum


Biographical Information


  • Birthday: May 10, 1958; Winchester, Frederick County, Va.
  • Education: B.A., Pennsylvania State University 1980; M.B.A., University of Pittsburgh 1981; J.D., Dickinson School of Law (Pa.) 1986
  • Military: None
  • Family: Married (Karen Santorum); Seven children (Elizabeth, John, Daniel, Sarah Maria, Peter, Patrick and Isabella)
  • Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa.
  • Religion: Roman Catholic
  • Career Highlights: Senator, representing Pennsylvania, 1995-2007
  • served as Republican Conference chairman in the Senate, 2001-2007
  • Member, House of Representatives, 1991-1995
  • administrative assistant to Pennsylvania State Senator J. Doyle Corman, 1981-1986
  • Books authored: Rick Santorum: A Senator Speaks Out on Life, Freedom, and Responsibility, 2005
  • It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, 2005.
Campaign Web Site: www.RickSantorum.com/


Candidate Profile


Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has made a name for himself as a strict social conservative. He attributes the development of his beliefs to his upbringing in western Pennsylvania, where he was raised by his mother and his father, an Italian immigrant.
He started out in politics while attending Pennsylvania State University, when he served as a campaign volunteer for Republican Sen. John Heinz. After working as a lawyer, Santorum was elected to the House of Representatives in 1990 at the age of 32.
In 1994, he was elected to the Senate. In 2000, he was elected chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, making him the youngest member of the Senate leadership. Santorum became a vocal opponent of abortion rights, introducing in the Senate the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, as well as the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and the 2004 Unborn Victims of Violence Act.
Santorum is also known for his fiscal conservatism -- he guided the 1996 Welfare Reform Act through Congress as chairman of the Republican Party Task Force on Welfare Reform -- as well as for his strong support of Israel.
He's also drawn attention for his views on homosexuality. Santorum's positions have drawn the ire of gay rights advocates, spurring syndicated columnist Dan Savage to use the name "Santorum" as a lewd term. The term still haunts Santorum on Google.
Santorum was soundly defeated in his 2006 re-election bid by Democratic candidate Bob Casey, Jr.


Jon Huntsman

Biographical Information 
  • Birthday: March 26, 1960, Palo Alto, California
  • Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania (Initially attended University of Utah)
  • Military: None
  • Family: Married (Mary Kaye Cooper), Seven children (Mary Anne, Abigail, Elizabeth, Jon III, William, Gracie Mei and Asha Bharati)
  • Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Religion: Mormon
  • Career Highlights: U.S. Ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, 2009-2011
  • Governor of Utah, 2005-2009
  • Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President George W. Bush, 2001-2003
  • U.S. Ambassador to Singapore under President George H.W. Bush, 1992-93 
  • Books authored: None
Campaign Web Site: www.jon2012.com
Candidate Profile
When President Obama tapped then-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to be the U.S. ambassador to China in 2009, it was widely seen in political circles as a savvy tactical move. The heir to the Huntsman chemical manufacturer and marketer was seen as a rising star in Republican politics, and, the thinking went, he would be formidable challenger to Mr. Obama in 2012. Sending him overseas would prevent a run.
Instead Huntsman quit his post earlier this year and then mounted a presidential run. But so far, he has been at the back of the pack in most polls. Huntsman is widely seen as too moderate for most Republican primary voters this season. The avid motorcyclist has also worked as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative for President George W. Bush and U.S. ambassador to Singapore for President George H.W. Bush.



Newt Gingrich

Biographical Information
  • Birthday: June 17, 1943; Harrisburg, Pa as Newton Leroy McPherson
  • Education: B.A., Emory University, MA/PhD Tulane University
  • Military: None
  • Family: Married (Callista Bisek Gingrich 2000-present), (Second wife: Marianne Ginther, 1981- 2000); (First wife Jackie Battley 1962-1981, Two children from first marriage: Kathy Gingrich Lubbers, Jackie Gingrich Cushman)
  • Hometown: McLean, Va.
  • Religion: Roman Catholic (raised Baptist)
  • Career Highlights: Founder, Center for Health Transformation, American Solutions for Winning the Future
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives 1995-1999
  • House Minority Whip 1989-1995
  • Member, House of Representatives 1979-1999 
  • Books authored: According to his campaign website, Gingrich is the author of twenty-three books, including thirteen New York Times bestsellers
Campaign Web Site: www.newt.org
Candidate Profile
A former speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich is a heavyweight Republican politician He was the visionary who returned Republicans to power in the House in the 1994 elections after four decades in the minority. And his Contract with America defined Republican values and priorities in the policy battles he waged in the 1990s with President Bill Clinton over the size and scope of the U.S. government.
As a presidential candidate, Gingrich started as more of a lightweight than heavyweight. While his name held sway in Republican circles, his campaign struggled out of the gate and several of his top advisers departed in June after a dispute over campaign strategy. But as the voting nears, Gingrich has surged and is now among the top tier in the polls.


Ron Paul

Biographical Information
  • Birthday: August 20, 1935; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Education: Gettysburg College, 1957; M.D., Duke University Medical Center, 1961
  • Military: flight surgeon, United States Air Force, 1963-1965; United States Air National Guard, 1965-1968
  • Family: Married (Carol Paul); Five children (Ronnie, Lori, Rand, Robert, Joy)
  • Hometown: Lake Jackson, Texas
  • Religion: Baptist
  • Career Highlights:Medical doctor with a specialization in obstetrics/gynecology
    Member, House of Represenatives; 1976-1977, 1979-1985, 1997- present
    1988 Libertarian Party presidential candidate
    2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination
  • Books authored: Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (2011)
  • End The Fed (2009)
  • The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008)
  • A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (2007)
Campaign Web Site: RonPaul2012.com
Candidate Profile
Texas Republican Ron Paul is well known for his strong libertarian views and strict interpretation of the Constitution. He has garnered a passionate group of supporters by sticking to his principles. In fact, he's been dubbed "Dr. No" because of his commitment to voting against any legislation unless he believes it has been expressly authorized by the Constitution. The nickname is also in reference to his medical degree.
Born in 1935 and raised in Pittsburgh, Paul graduated from Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine before serving as a flight surgeon in the Air Force in the 1960s. Paul and his wife Carol moved to Texas in 1968, where he opened his medical practice. Paul brags of having delivered more than 4,000 babies as a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology.
Paul cites his history as an obstetrician when explaining his anti-abortion views and professing his Christian beliefs. In spite of his religion and opposition to abortion, social conservatives are slow to back Paul because of the rest of his largely libertarian platform.
The Texan opposes the federal regulation of marriage and opposes the "war on drugs." He takes a strict anti-interventionist stance and voted against the 2002 Iraq War resolution. He is a fierce critic of the Federal Reserve and an advocate of the gold standard.
Paul's views have made him particularly popular among young Republicans and have helped him exploit new media to raise impressive amounts of cash and grassroots support for his campaigns. His brand of conservatism is often credited as the basis for the Tea Party and the Republican party's renewed focus on limited government spending. In spite of the enthusiasm of his core supporters, Paul earned only minimal support in the 2008 Republican primaries, leading some to question whether his views can appeal to the rest of the Republican party.


Rick Perry

Biographical Information
  • Birthday: March 4, 1950; Paint Creek, Texas
  • Education: B.S., Texas A&M University, 1972
  • Military: Air Force, 1972-1977
  • Family: Married (Anita Thigpen Perry), two children (Griffin and Sydney)
  • Hometown: Paint Creek, Texas
  • Religion: Evangelical Christian
  • Career Highlights:Governor of Texas 2000-present
    Republican Governors Association chairman, 2010-2011
    Texas agriculture commissioner, 1991-1999
    Texas state representative, 1985-1991
  • Books authored:"Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington" (2010)
  • "On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting for" (2008)
Campaign Web Site: RickPerry.org
Candidate Profile
Rick Perry grew up in rural Paint Creek, Texas, the son of tenant farmers. He attended Texas A&M, where he was a popular figure on campus, becoming a "yell leader" - a prominent male cheerleader - and joining the ROTC-like Corps of Cadets. Lacking the grades for a veterinary degree, he graduated with a degree in animal science.
After graduation, Perry spent five years in the Air Force, where he attained the rank of captain. He left the military in 1977, returning to Texas to work with his father as a cotton farmer. In 1984, running as a Democrat, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. Five years later he would switch to the Republican Party, and in 1990 he was elected Agriculture Commissioner. After two terms, he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998, and assumed the governorship in 2001 with then-Governor George W. Bush resigned to become president.
Perry has served as governor ever since, becoming the longest serving governor in the state's history. An outspoken evangelical Christian, he opposes same-sex marriage and abortion rights and advocates intelligent design be taught in schools. He called on Texans to pray for rain to address the state's devastating droughts and the wildfires they created.
Though he has accepted federal stimulus money, Perry is a strong proponent of states rights, at one point suggesting Texas might have to secede from the union. His presidential bid is grounded in his appear to social and fiscal conservatives and in the fact that Texas has in recent years overwhelmingly led the nation in job creation - though detractors point out that many of those jobs are low wage and driven by the state's population growth.
As chairman of the Republican Governor's Association, Perry has been able to build a national fundraising base to augment his Texas network, making him the second most potent fundraiser in the GOP field, next to Mitt Romney.



Mitt  Romney

Biographical Information
  • Birthday: March 12, 1947; Detroit, Mich.
  • Education: B.S., Brigham Young University, 1971; MBA/JD, Harvard Business School, 1975
  • Military: None
  • Family: Married (Anne Romney), Five children (Tag, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig)
  • Hometown: Belmont, Mass.
  • Religion: Mormon
  • Career Highlights: Governor of Mass. 2003-2007
    President, Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee, 1999-2002
    CEO, Bain and Company, 1994-1999
    Founder, Bain Capital 1984-90
  • Books authored:"Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games" (2004)
  • No Apology: Believe in America (2011)
Campaign Web Site: www.mittromney.com
Candidate Profile
 
Mitt Romney grew up in Detroit, the son of auto executive and Michigan governor George Romney. After attending private school in suburban Detroit, Romney spent one year at Stanford University before spending 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary. Romney, whose deferments and high draft number kept him out of the Vietnam War, attended Brigham Young University upon his return; he and his wife had their first son, Tagg, while he was an undergraduate. Romney went on to get a joint law and business degree from Harvard, and became a management consultant upon graduation in 1975.
Romney would spend the following years as a management consultant before co-founding private equity firm Bain Capital. The firm would acquire or invest in companies, often helping create jobs at these companies but sometimes cutting them. In 1994, Romney tried and failed to unseat Ted Kennedy as Massachusetts senator. In 1999, he left the business world to become CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games, which he was widely credited with turning around.
Romney was elected Massachusetts governor in 2002; his signature accomplishment was passage of a health care law that extended coverage to nearly all of the state's residents. A Republican running a deeply blue state, Romney supported abortion rights and adopted centrist positions on gay rights; those positions would prompt social conservatives to look at him skeptically when he ran for president in 2008.
Despite little name recognition nationally when he started his 2008 presidential run, Romney came close to winning the nomination; he would spend $45 million of his own money in the process, and shift notably to the right on social issues. In his 2012 run, he is stressing his business experience as necessary to turn around the struggling economy.
Romney entered the campaign as the frontrunner - though a weak one, due in part to the similarities between the health care law he signed in Massachusetts and President Obama's federal health care law. A powerful fundraiser with considerable wealth of his own, Romney has adopted a strategy that would allow him to whether possible losses in early-voting states and keep fighting for delegates even as rivals run out of money and leave the race.


Where is the Congress We voted In.....



2011 Least productive year for Congress



Anchor raises debt ceiling, literally

Rant: Congress, do your job!

 

11 things you might not know about Santorum


Sweater vests, his high school nickname and his large family

            John Gress  /  Reuters
Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Rick Santorum pauses as he address his Iowa Caucus night rally in Johnston, Iowa, January 3, 2012.
 By 
updated 1 hour 20 minutes ago
ANALYSIS
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, has made a name for himself in Iowa but is still a mostly unknown quantity nationally. Here are 11 things you might not know about the latest GOP contender to seize the fickle 2012 spotlight.
Lessons from Iowa’s GOP squeaker
1. He has a Google problem. In a 2003 interview, Santorum said allowing same-sex marriage could open the door to other unacceptable relationships, such as "man on child" or "man on dog." Enraged by the equating of homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality, sex columnist Dan Savage, who is gay, asked his readers to redefine "Santorum" as a disgusting sexual term, then enlisted their help to boost the new definition in Google rankings. It remains the No. 1 non-sponsored result for the former senator's distinctive last name. What does it mean? Well, you can Google it.
2. He's always worked this hard. In Iowa, Santorum has become known for his dogged retail campaigning -- he's logged more than 350 campaign events in all of the state's 99 counties. It was a similar story in 1990, when Santorum got his start in politics at the age of 32 by unexpectedly knocking off a seven-term incumbent congressman in a strongly Democratic district in the Pittsburgh suburbs. He knocked on thousands of doors and bludgeoned his opponent for spending too much time out of the district. His win was considered so improbable, he says, that the National Republican Congressional Committee didn't know his name on Election Night. Thrown into an even less GOP-friendly district by redistricting in 1992, he repeated the feat, and in 1994 he knocked off an incumbent Democratic senator.
After dismal Iowa showing, Bachmann suspends campaign
3. He's a culture warrior. Homosexuality, abortion and family values have been the signature issues of Santorum's career, rising to prominence as he did during the height of the 1990s culture wars. He authored the partial-birth abortion ban that passed the Senate in 2003. He proposed an amendment to the No Child Left Behind legislation that would have required public-school teachers to discuss the "controversy" surrounding evolution. Remember Terri Schiavo? That was him, too -- he was one of the leading voices calling for the federal government to intervene to prevent the Florida woman from being taken off life support amid conflicting family wishes. Santorum decries secularism, hedonism and the idea that different family configurations are equally acceptable, openly pining for a bygone society built around heterosexual marriage and traditional gender roles. In his book, It Takes a Family -- intended as a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's It Takes a Village -- Santorum blamed "the influence of radical feminism" for the distressing fact that women were finding it "more socially affirming to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children."
Santorum camp looks ahead to S.C.
4. He has a big family. Santorum and his wife, Karen, have seven living children. A devout Catholic, he is personally opposed to contraception, which he has called "harmful to women," though he says he would not attempt to outlaw it. An eighth child, Gabriel, was born premature at 20 weeks in 1996 and survived for just two hours; in her book about Gabriel's brief time on earth, Karen wrote that they brought his dead body home from the hospital and introduced the other children to their brother. ''Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness," Karen wrote. "Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, 'This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.''' The Santorums' youngest, Bella, was born with a severe, usually fatal genetic defect related to Down syndrome. Against the odds, she has survived to the age of 3. Santorum frequently speaks on the trail about her and her ongoing health problems, and his campaign even produced a web video about her fight for life. The two eldest Santorum children, 20-year-old Elizabeth and 19-year-old John, are taking time off from college to work on their father's campaign.
Romney accepts McCain's endorsement in GOP race
5. Why you've never heard of him. Santorum hasn't held office for over five years, having lost his 2006 bid for re-election to a third Senate term. His 18-point losing margin was the biggest loss ever by an incumbent Pennsylvania Republican senator -- an inconvenient footnote to Santorum's electability argument, which he tries to explain away by claiming 2006 was a historically bad year for the GOP nationally. Ironically for a politician who'd first won office by criticizing his rival's absences, Santorum was damaged in that race by questions about his residency -- the Pittsburgh-area home he claimed as his was occupied by renters, while his children were enrolled in a Pennsylvania-based online high school from their home in Northern Virginia. As Santorum turned to apocalyptic fear-mongering about the threat of radical Islamism, his Democratic opponent, Robert Casey Jr., replied, "No one believes terrorists are going to be more likely to attack us because I defeat Rick Santorum. Does even he believe that?"
 Video: Santorum: Thank you so much, Iowa (on this page)
6. His high school nickname was "The Rooster." According to a 2005 profile in the Philadelphia City Paper, when Santorum was in high school, "Everybody called him 'Rooster' because of a strand of hair on the back of his head which stood up, and because of his competitive, in-your-face attitude. 'He would debate anything and everything with you, mostly sports,' [a friend recalled]. 'He was like a rooster. He never backed down.'" That profile also contains this description of the young Santorum, before he met his wife, courtesy of a cousin: "Rick was a funny guy. He sported a bushy moustache for a time, wore Hawaiian shirts and smoked cigars. He liked to laugh, drink and call things 'horsey-assey.' He was very popular and fun to be around."
7. He represented the world wrestling federation.Santorum has a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from Dickinson. In his first career, as a lawyer, he represented the World Wrestling Federation, "arguing that pro wrestling was not a sport and should be exempt from federal steroid regulations," according to theCity Paper profile.
8. He's obsessed with Iran.Santorum is an extreme Iran hawk, arguing that tough action, likely military, is needed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. In effect, he says, the U.S. has been at war with Iran since 1979, and regime change will be necessary to ensure the country is no longer a threat. Santorum has been pounding this drum for some time. In 2005, he authored a bill to put $10 million toward Iran regime change.
9. He's a first-generation American. Santorum's grandfather immigrated from Italy when his father was young. Santorum frequently mentions this fact to support his argument that he's not against immigration, only illegal immigration, against which he takes a very tough stance. On Sunday in northwestern Iowa, he pointed to the five years his grandfather spent apart from his family to argue that breaking up families to send illegal immigrants home is not inhumane, as some contend. His family was temporarily broken up, he said, "but America was worth it."
10. The rap on him. As Santorum's chances have improved recently, Mitt Romney has attacked him as a Washington insider who lacks executive experience. Rick Perry has taken aim at his seeking of earmarks, his votes in favor of increased federal spending and his support for raising the debt ceiling while he was in Congress. Though Santorum believes in lowering taxes and decreasing regulation, his willingness to get government involved in people's private lives and his aggressive national-security views tend to supersede his belief in small government. But the mark on Santorum's record that seems to chafe conservative primary voters the most is his endorsement of his former colleague, former Sen. Arlen Specter, in Specter's 2004 Republican primary against Pat Toomey. Santorum recorded a pro-Specter ad vouching for his conservative bona fides and continues to defend Specter's record. In 2010, facing almost certain defeat, Specter switched parties, only to lose the Democratic primary. Toomey won the general election.
 Video: Santorum as Huckabee? and Gingrich goes to NH (on this page)
11. The sweater vest. Santorum has recently adopted a sartorial trademark, wearing a sweater vest over a dress shirt at every recent campaign stop. Asked by MSNBC's Chuck Todd how that came about, Santorum said it started when he wore one at a Mike Huckabee-hosted candidate forum in Des Moines in mid-December. "That day, I just happened to have a sweater vest on," he said. People at that event took notice -- some wondered whether the inspiration came from Santorum's national communications director, Hogan Gidley, whom Santorum describes as "one of the most unique dressers in political history." (For the record, Gidley denies involvement.) Ever since then, Santorum has been sporting the sweater vest, which, with its aggressively vanilla, anti-fashion flavor, seems to suit him.
The article, "11 Things You Might Not Know About Rick Santorum," first appeared in the National Journal.