Santorum: It's all the media's fault

Trailing in the polls, the Pennsylvania Republican says the press is feeding the voters "junk."

Published September 19, 2006 1:41PM (EDT)

Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, trailing Bob Casey Jr. by double digits and sitting at the top of everyone's "most endangered incumbent list," says the press is to blame for his problems. As Editor and Publisher reports, Santorum refused over the weekend to talk with a reporter from the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa. "I have to raise tens of millions of dollars because of the junk you feed the people of Pennsylvania," Santorum told the reporter. The senator then "used an expletive to describe the coverage and slammed down a newspaper."

While the sentiment Santorum expressed isn't all that unusual -- Republicans have all been victimized by the liberal media, remember? -- we'd note that the case he made isn't particularly persuasive. The last time we checked, Santorum isn't down in the polls because the press has been pounding the drums about tangential personal scandals. Santorum is down because he's a hard-line conservative and Bush loyalist in a state where almost 60 percent of the people disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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