CBS News/ February 9, 2012, 1:11 PM

No more Mr. Nice Guy for Santorum

Are Santorum wins good for GOP's future?

Rick Santorum

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - No more Mr. Nice Guy for newly energized Rick Santorum.

The Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday launched a full-throated attack of front-runner Mitt Romney, saying the former Massachusetts governor's campaign "has been about serially tearing down opponents without offering any kind of vision for what he wants to do for this country.

"This is the gotcha politics of Mitt Romney," Santorum said, sounding complaints almost identical to those lodged by rival conservative Newt Gingrich against Romney after Gingrich won the South Carolina primary last month.

"He's not interested in talking about the issues," Santorum said of Romney. "He's interested in trying to pander and make political sauce when there's real substantive issues about how we're gonna try to change this government. And he's on the wrong side of it."

Tailoring his message to his audience in a major energy-producing state, Santorum said he favors hydrofracking, a relatively new process of extracting natural gas by breaking up rock with pressurized water. Environmentalists say hydrofracking causes groundwater pollution.

"It's the new boogey man," Santorum told a crowd of over 850 people, one of the largest since he launched his campaign for the GOP nomination last year. "It's the new way to try to scare you and those folks particularly not from Oklahoma and Texas.

"We're sort of new to this stuff, hydrofracking, in Pennsylvania. And they're preying on the Northeast, saying, 'Look what's going to happen. Ooh, all this bad stuff's going to happen. We don't know all these chemicals and all this stuff.' ... Let me tell you what's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen, except they will use this to raise money for the radical environmental groups so they can go out and continue to try to purvey their reign of environmental terror on the United States of America."

At a media availability at the event, Santorum was questioned about a super PAC supporting his candidacy and funded by Foster Friess, a wealthy investor and backer of conservative causes and candidates. Santorum said he knew nothing about the super PAC's activities and called Friess "a friend of mine for 20 years."

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KeepTapWaterSafe says:: What Truth does Santorum speak? There's plenty of science to back up the assertions of numerous environmental groups opposed to hydraulic fracturing. It's proving to be way more detrimental to human health and the ecology than neocons in PA GOP would have us believe. In fact, here's the list of published, peer-reviewed studies they attempt to dismiss:

http://brynmawr.patch.com/blog...; reply

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KeepTapWaterSafe says:: What Truth does Santorum speak? There's plenty of science to back up the assertions of the numerous environmental groups opposed to hydraulic fracturing. It's proving to be way more detrimental to human health and the ecology than neocons in PA GOP would have us believe. In fact, here's the list of published, peer-reviewed studies they attempt to dismiss:

http://brynmawr.patch.com/blog...; reply

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kevin_hunt says:: "Well, yeah, I admitted you know, back when I was running for the Senate, that when I was in college that I smoked pot and that was something that I did when I was in college." August 31, 2011, Santorum appearing on "Piers Morgan Tonight" Go Rick!!; reply

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robertopp2002 says:: There is a video on YouTube where people in Western PA ignited water coming out of a faucet. Fracking is totally safe and scientists are all engaged in a giant conspiracy ::rolls eyes::; reply

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tsigili says:: He was never a nice guy. His first few debates, he was totally in attack mode, and indeed nobody like that, very much at all, which is why he gained no traction.; reply

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Term_Limits_Please says:: Go get em Rick....your the only one in the field that is not covered in garbage...

Your the best in the field...as a person who can at least relate with the common man and their family.; reply

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82ndairbornediv says:: If there is going to be an October surprise, it will be someone's campaign having "contact" with a Super PAC... bound to happen.; reply

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RandallRichard says:: At a media availability at the event, Santorum was questioned about a super PAC supporting his candidacy and funded by Foster Friess, a wealthy investor and backer of conservative causes and candidates. Santorum said he knew nothing about the super PAC's activities and called Friess "a friend of mine for 20 years."

I know nothing, nothing!
Sargent Schulz, Hogan's Heros.; reply

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quatermass2 says:

""We're sort of new to this stuff, hydrofracking, in Pennsylvania. And they're preying on the Northeast, saying, 'Look what's going to happen. Ooh, all this bad stuff's going to happen. We don't know all these chemicals and all this stuff.' ... Let me tell you what's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen, except they will use this to raise money for the radical environmental groups so they can go out and continue to try to purvey their reign of environmental terror on the United States of America."

Keep it up, you nutjob. With an opponent saying demonstrably wrong things like this, Obama won't need to spend a dime for re-election.


RandallRichard replies:: linkicon reporticon emailicon; We miss burning rivers so much since we cleaned up the environment, so we need to go to ignitable water faucets.