Santorum On McConnell And Boehner: 'They've Been So Beaten Up, They Refuse To Fight'
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a pointed critic of Republican Congressional leadership, today struck out at their lack of opposition to the President and will to fight for social issues.
Santorum told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that he is tired of Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House John Boehner constantly losing battles that matter to conservative voters.
"They have Stockholm Syndrome. Because they've been so beaten up by the media and by the left every time they stick their head up that they're afraid to confront them anymore. They simply go along with their captors. They have been so beaten that they refuse to fight anymore...So let's just not fight at all. I'm not happy about that. I can tell you, as I travel around this country and talk to voters, they're completely disillusioned with these folks they send to Congress who say they're going to be tough and do nothing when they get there."
He said not pushing for more confrontations on social issues has been a problem with Republican leadership for a long time.
"What I remember when I was fighting the fights, and I did fight the fights when I was in the United States Senate in pushing for traditional American values and conservative principles, every time I did, the answer was, 'we're better off keeping our head down on these things, they're controversial. We need to stay away from them. We need to focus on raising money and funding our local candidates and making this an issue-less election because when we get involved in issues, the other side beats us up.' I'm just telling you, it's absolutely pathetic that they'll answer the question, 'it won't pass anyway, it's not worth the fight. The President will veto it, so why are we spending our time, we'll be criticized for spending our time on something that will never pass, therefore we should go off to things that we can be productive.' That's what they'll say."
Santorum was also critical of FOX News' handling of the Republican Presidential debate process and believes every declared candidate should be allowed access to the stage.
"The fact that a news agency is going to begin to sift the field down and cull the field is another affront to the voters of this country. I'm hopeful they'll change their format and allow everybody who should be in in, which would be about 16 candidates divided into two debates and split them up. Allow eight in each and I think you'll have a much more vibrant and fun debate if you did that."