The Santorum Sleaze Factor

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While the Republican Party, prodded by Tea Party activists, has begun to turn away from the lobbyist-infested dealmaking tax-and-spend approach to politics which had much to do with the loss of Congress and the White House, it seems that Presidential candidate Rick Santorum is proof that mindset is alive and well and working to reassert itself within the GOP.

Questions have been raised about his association with Jim Hirni, a former Jack Abramoff-associated lobbyist who is playing an active role in Santorum’s campaign. Hirni, who was convicted in 2008 for buying favors with Senate staff members, didn’t even take time out of politics after his conviction, setting up shop in South Carolina and working for Santorum while serving as an informant for the feds until he was sentenced last November:

But the Hirni association is just the tip of the iceberg as many other sources have connected Santorum to Washington’s pay-to-play insider culture, both during and after his time as a Senator. Reports which are beginning to surface about Santorum’s involvement in the shadowy world of Washington insider deal-making, special favors and corruption should prompt GOP activists should bring into question the validity of Santorum’s claims to be conserative Presidential candidate.

As a Senator, Santorum was identified as being at the center of an effort to force lobbying firms into a close partnership with the Republican Party in a story by Nicholas Confessore in “Welcome to the Machine”, which was published in the July/August 2003 edition of the Washington Monthly:

Every week, the lobbyists present pass around a list of the jobs available and discuss whom to support. Santorum’s responsibility is to make sure each one is filled by a loyal Republican–a senator’s chief of staff, for instance, or a top White House aide, or another lobbyist whose reliability has been demonstrated. After Santorum settles on a candidate, the lobbyists present make sure it is known whom the Republican leadership favors. “The underlying theme was [to] place Republicans in key positions on K Street. Everybody taking part was a Republican and understood that that was the purpose of what we were doing,” says Rod Chandler, a retired congressman and lobbyist who has participated in the Santorum meetings. “It’s been a very successful effort.”

The Washington Post reported that as his 2006 re-election bid was heating up, Santorum suspended the meetings for several weeks, only to resume the meetings with lobbyists elsewhere in Washington:

One lobbyist called the attendees “the usual suspects,” and said they were among the city’s best-known lobbyists whose firms represent financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, oil production and tobacco companies. The lobbyist added: “There were two or three people from his [Santorum's] campaign who didn’t go to meetings at the Capitol. I don’t think beyond that that I recognized anybody new.”

Not surprisingly, Santorum has denied the K Street connections, prompting Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, to challenge Santorum’s denials, presenting considerable evidence of his ongoing dealings with lobbyists.

While still in the Senate, Santorum was accused of receiving a $500,000 home loan on favorable terms from Philadelphia Trust Company, a private bank whose officers contributed $24,000 to Santorum’s political action committees and re-election campaign:

After being thrown out of his Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat, Santorum didn’t mind cashing in on his connections. NBC documented a number of instances where Santorum pulled in lucrative consulting gigs very similar to lobbying:

An ABC News story provided additional details about Santorum’s business dealings as a Washington influence-peddler, pointing out that “Santorum has worked for at least seven different employers simultaneously, with several paying him a six-figure fee”:

Where there’s smoke, there’s often fire. As the GOP attempts to purge itself of influence-peddling insiders who compromised the Republican Party’s adherence to conservative principles, it might be wise for Republicans to ask if Rick Santorum is part of the solution or simply just another part of the business-as-usual problem.