Who is Rick Santorum? (Apart from being a politician and of course, a lawyer)

Just saw a news crawl on Fox news - "Media looking into political background of Rick Santorum."

[After reading Santorum's bio, I have to say, no way would I vote for this guy. Letting our taxes pay for his kid's education when he makes more in a year than most of us make in a lifetime? I think not.]

From Wikipedia:
Richard John "Rick" Santorum (born May 10, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives (1991-1995) and the U.S. Senate (1995-2007). While a Senator, Santorum was chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, making him the third-ranking Senate Republican from 2001 to 2007.

Santorum is considered both a social and fiscal conservative. He is well-known for his socially conservative positions, his role in enacting welfare reform in 1996, and his views on U.S. foreign policy regarding Iran.

Since leaving public office, Santorum worked as an attorney, served as a Senior Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and been has a contributor to Fox News Channel.

Santorum is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2012 election. He formed a presidential exploratory committee on April 13, 2011, and formally announced his candidacy on June 6, 2011. After running in the bottom tier of candidates for months, Santorum gained significant momentum in the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, scoring a second-place finish with eight votes behind the first-place candidate, Mitt Romney.

Early life, education, and legal career
Born to parents Aldo (1923-2011) and Catherine Santorum (née Dughi, born 1918) in Winchester, Virginia, Santorum was raised in Berkeley County, West Virginia and Butler County, Pennsylvania. His father was an Italian immigrant, originally from Riva del Garda, Italy; his mother is of half-Italian and half-Irish descent.

During his childhood, Santorum's parents worked at the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital in Butler with the family living at the VA hospital post. His father became licensed as a clinical psychologist in August 1974.

Santorum graduated from Carmel High School in Mundelein, Illinois, in 1976, where his father transferred within the VA hospital system. He lists his residency as Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and maintains a home in Virginia for his work in Washington, D.C.

Santorum earned a B.A. in political science from Pennsylvania State University in 1980 and an M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. In 1986, Santorum received a Juris Doctorate degree from the Dickinson School of Law, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, and began practicing in Pittsburgh at the law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, now known as K&L Gates.

Santorum met his future wife, Karen Garver, while he was recruiting summer interns for Kirkpatrick & Lockhart and Garver was a law student at the University of Pittsburgh. Santorum left private practice after being elected to the House of Representatives in 1990.

Early political career
Santorum served in the United States Senate representing Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007.

Santorum first became actively involved in politics through volunteering for the late Senator John Heinz, a Republican from Pennsylvania. After earning his Juris Doctor, Santorum became an administrative assistant to Republican state Senator Doyle Corman, working for Corman until 1986. He was director of the Pennsylvanian Senate's local government committee from 1981 to 1984, then director of the Pennsylvanian Senate's Transportation Committee until 1986.

In 1990, at age 32, Santorum was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. He scored a significant upset, defeating a seven-term Democratic incumbent Doug Walgren by a 51%-49% margin. Although the 18th District was heavily Democratic, Santorum heavily criticized Walgren for living outside the district for most of the year.

The 18th District was redrawn for the 1992 elections, and the new district had a 3:1 ratio of registered Democrats to Republicans; Santorum still won re-election with 61% of the vote. In Congress, as a member of the Gang of Seven, Santorum was involved in the naming of the Representatives involved in the House banking scandal.

U.S. Senate
Elections
1994
In 1994 during the 1994 Republican takeover, Santorum was elected to the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating the incumbent Democrat, Harris Wofford, 49% to 47%. The theme of Santorum's 1994 campaign signs was "Join the Fight!"

2000
Santorum was re-elected in 2000, defeating U.S. Congressman Ron Klink by a 52%-46% margin.

2006
In 2006, Santorum sought re-election to a third term in the U.S. Senate. His seat was considered among the most vulnerable for Republicans, and he ran unopposed in the Republican primaries. His Democratic opponent was State Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., the son of popular former governor Robert Casey, Sr., who was well known for his pro-life advocacy despite being a Democrat. Santorum's seat was a prime target of Democratic efforts to gain Senate seats in the 2006 elections. Casey's candidacy was bolstered by his opposition to abortion, negating one of Santorum's key issues.

For most of the campaign, Santorum was behind by 15 points or more in polls. Polls showed that Santorum was closing on Casey during the summer of 2006, but Casey's margin increased back to double-digits in September. A potential Green Party candidate was not allowed ballot access, further hurting Santorum's prospects, as there were no other candidates to siphon away some Casey voters. Some Santorum supporters had also funded the Green Party candidate, raising suspicions that some federal election laws may have been violated to help Santorum.

Santorum was mired in controversy over his residence in Virginia, where he and his family stay while the Senate was in session. He admitted that he spent only "maybe a month a year, something like that" at his Pennsylvania residence, which critics argued was hypocritical because Santorum himself had denounced, and defeated, Rep. Doug Walgren-PA for living away from his House district.

Santorum faced damaging stories that he enrolled five of his children in an online "cyber school" in Pennsylvania, for which the Penn Hills school district was billed $73,000, despite the fact that all the children lived in Virginia. Santorum aimed a television ad suggesting that Casey's supporters had been under investigation for various crimes. The negative ad backfired, as the The Scranton Times-Tribune found that all but a few of Casey's contributors donated when he was running for other offices, and none were investigated for anything.

In fact, two of the persons cited in Santorum's campaign ad actually gave contributions to him in 2006, and one died in 2004. Santorum's campaign countered that those donations were not kept, and had been donated to educational institutions. Santorum faced controversy for statements against "radical feminism", which he claimed had made it "socially affirming to work outside the home" at the expense of child care.

Santorum shifted his campaign theme to the threat of radical Islam and Islamic terrorism in the United States. He gave a speech invoking British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, referring to multiple forces trying to undermine the U.S. in a "gathering storm" (the term Churchill used to describe the causes of World War II).

He pointed to the historical date of a Muslim siege in Europe, Sept. 11, 1683, as evidence that radical Islamists were waging a more than 300-year old crusade with the intent to restore Shia clerics to power in the Western world. Casey told the press that Santorum's claims were outrageous, saying, "No one believes terrorists are going to be more likely to attack us, because I defeat Rick Santorum. Does even he believe that?" A heated debate between the candidates occurred on October 11, 2006. Bill Toland of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described both candidates' performances during the debate as "unstatesmanlike".

In the November 7, 2006 election, Santorum lost by over 700,000 votes, receiving 41.3 percent of the vote to Casey's 58.7 percent, the largest margin of defeat ever for an incumbent Republican Senator in Pennsylvania. The 18-point defeat was the largest margin of defeat for any incumbent senator since 1980 and the largest margin of any incumbent Republican senator ever.

Specter endorsement
Santorum's support among social conservatives in his failed 2006 re-election was eroded by his endorsement for his Senate colleague Arlen Specter over conservative Congressman Pat Toomey in 2004. Many socially and fiscally conservative Republicans considered his endorsement to be a betrayal of their cause. However, Santorum says he endorsed Specter to ensure that President George W. Bush's judicial nominees would make it through the Senate, as the Los Angeles Times reports:

"As Santorum tells voters, Specter was then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tasked with confirming Bush's nominees to the Supreme Court. At the time, the Republicans held a 51-49 seat majority and were in danger of losing their Senate majority. (White House aides calculated that the veteran Specter had a much better chance of holding the Pennsylvania seat than Toomey.)

Santorum praises Specter as a stalwart supporter of Republican judicial nominees, and uses the post-election confirmations of John Roberts in 2005 and Samuel Alito in 2006 to make his case.

'I have no doubt that Sam Alito would not have been confirmed' without the re-elected Specter's help, Santorum maintains. 'That's a pretty good trade, in my judgment', he adds."

Tenure
In 1996, Santorum served as Chairman of the Republican Party Task Force on Welfare Reform, and contributed to legislation that became the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Santorum was an author and the floor manager of the bill. It was written by E. Clay Shaw, Jr. and passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. In 1996, Santorum endorsed moderate Republican Arlen Specter in his short-lived campaign for president. Reporters have observed that Santorum and Specter differed on social policy, but Specter provided him with key political staff for his successful run in 1994.

Santorum served in the U.S. Congress as a Senator from Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2006. From 2001 until his leave in 2007, he was the Senate's third-ranking Republican.

He sponsored Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) with U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA). He supported partial privatization of Social Security, and following President Bush's re-election, he held forums across Pennsylvania on the topic. He was also a strong ally for Israel and American Jews. In 2003, Santorum and fellow Republicans heard from Hillel, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Zionist Organization of America to determine how to combat anti-Semitism in American colleges.

Santorum drafted language on "ideological diversity," which Race & Class magazine suggested was tantamount to "policing thought." Inside Higher Ed suggested that he was pandering to David Horowitz and had no deep-seated position on the legislation.

In 2006, U2 front man Bono told New York Times columnist David Brooks, "I would suggest that Rick Santorum has a kind of Tourette’s disease; he will always say the most unpopular thing. But on our issues, he has been a defender of the most vulnerable."

Social conservatism
Santorum has attracted support and criticism because of his strong social conservative views. Santorum advocates "compassionate conservatism" which he says "relies on healthy families, freedom of faith, a vibrant civil society, a proper understanding of the individual and a focused government to achieve noble purposes through definable objectives which offers hope to all."

He is known for his "confrontational, partisan, ‘in your face’ style of politics and government.” “I just don’t take the pledge. I take the bullets,” Santorum said. “I stand out in front and I lead to make sure the voices of those who do not have a voice are out in front and being included in the national debate.”[53] In his 2005 book, It Takes a Family, he advocates for a more family values oriented society centered on monogamous, heterosexual relationships, marriage, and child-raising. He is strongly pro-life and opposes same-sex marriage saying the American public and their elected officials should decide on these "incredibly important moral issues", rather than the Supreme Court, which consists of "nine unelected, unaccountable judges.”

While in Congress, Santorum supported efforts to fight global AIDS, provide assistance to orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries, combat genocide in Sudan, and offer third world debt relief. He also supported homeownership tax credits, offering savings accounts to children from and rewarding savings by low-income families, funding autism research, fighting tuberculosis, and providing housing for people with AIDS. He supported increased funding for Social Services Block Grants and organizations like Healthy Start and the Children’s Aid Society, and financing community health centers.

Intelligent design
In 2001, Santorum sought to amend the No Child Left Behind bill to include a provision affecting the teaching of evolution. According to Santorum, his goal was that students studying evolution should hear "competing scientific interpretations of evidence," including "such alternative theories as intelligent design." The provision came to be known as the "Santorum Amendment" and was written with the assistance of the Discovery Institute. The Senate's approval of the amendment "was hailed by anti-evolution groups as a major victory and criticized by scientific organizations.

The Santorum Amendment was not included in the final version of the Act made law, but similar language was included in the accompanying report of the conference committee. The Discovery Institute and many intelligent design proponents, including two Ohio Congressmen, have repeatedly invoked this to suggest that intelligent design should be included in public school science standards as an alternative to evolution. In a 2002 Washington Times op-ed article, Santorum wrote that intelligent design "is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes."

By 2005 Santorum had adopted the Discovery Institute's Teach the Controversy approach, stating in an interview with National Public Radio, "I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom. What we should be teaching are the problems and holes, and I think there are legitimate problems and holes in the theory of evolution,"[68] a statement that mirrors the Teach the Controversy strategy, the most recent iteration of the intelligent design movement.

Santorum resigned from the advisory board of the Thomas More Law Center because he disagreed with the Center's role in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case, where the Center represented a school board that had gone beyond "teach the controversy" and had required the teaching of intelligent design. Santorum wrote the foreword for the 2006 book Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson And the Intelligent Design Movement, a collection of essays largely by Discovery Institute fellows honoring the "father" of the intelligent design movement, Phillip E. Johnson. When asked, Santorum stated that he believes in evolution in "a micro sense".

2003 interview and Google bomb
An interview Santorum gave to the Associated Press erupted in controversy when it outlined his views on homosexuality. The interview, dated April 20, 2003, had asked him his views on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Santorum said the priests were engaged in "a basic homosexual relationship", and said, "I have a problem with homosexual acts". He argued that the extended right to privacy ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut did not exist in the United States Constitution and that laws should exist against polygamy, adultery, sodomy, and other actions "antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family".

Santorum said those actions were harmful to society, saying, "Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman.... In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality".

Santorum later said that he did not intend to equate homosexuality with incest and pedophilia, but rather as a critique of the specific legal position that the right to privacy prevents the government from regulating consensual acts among adults (such as bigamy, incest, etc.).

In protest of the remarks, Dan Savage launched a contest among his readers in May 2003 to coin a new word "santorum" with an unflattering sexual definition, and followed this with a Google bombing campaign to spread the new term. Since 2004, Savage's Google bomb has regularly been the top search result for Santorum's surname, leading to what commentators have dubbed "Santorum's Google problem". Santorum has characterized the campaign as a "type of vulgarity" common on the Internet.[74] In September 2011, Santorum unsuccessfully requested that Google remove the definition from its search engine index.

Controversy regarding Catholic sex abuse
In 2005, a controversy developed over an article Santorum wrote in 2002 to a Catholic publication. In it, he said that liberalism and moral relativism in American society, particularly within seminaries, contributed to the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. He wrote, "...it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

The comments were widely publicized in June 2005 by the Philadelphia Daily News by columnist John Baer. He told readers, "I'd remind you this is the same Senate leader who recently likened Democrats fighting to save the filibuster to Nazis."

In Massachusetts, Santorum's remarks were heavily criticized, and on July 12, 2005, The Boston Globe called on Santorum to explain his statement. The newspaper reported that Robert Traynham, Santorum's spokesman, told him, "It's an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases. I think that's what the senator was speaking to." A spokesman for Mitt Romney then Governor of Massachusetts, also rebuked the comments. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) delivered a personal rebuke to Santorum on the Senate floor, saying "The people of Boston are to blame for the clergy sexual abuse? That is an irresponsible, insensitive and inexcusable thing to say."

Santorum has stood by his 2002 article and to date, has not apologized. During the controversy, he said the statement about Boston was taken out of context and that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had targeted his article, written three years earlier, to coordinate with Kennedy's speech against him. Santorum continued to agree with the broader theme of a cultural connection, saying that it is "no surprise that the culture affects people's behavior. [...] the liberal culture—the idea that [...] sexual inhibitions should be put aside and people should be able to do whatever they want to do, has an impact on people and how they behave." He again agreed with the premise that it was "no surprise that the center of the Catholic Church abuse took place in very liberal, or perhaps the nation's most liberal area, Boston." He recalled mentioning Boston because in July 2002, he said, the outrage of American Catholics, as well as his own, was focused on the Archdiocese of Boston.

Privacy
Santorum has frequently stated that he does not believe a "right to privacy" exists under the Constitution, even within marriage; he has been especially critical of the Supreme Court decision in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which held that the Constitution guaranteed the aforementioned right, and on that basis, overturned a law prohibiting the sale and use of contraceptives. He has described contraception as "a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be."

Illegal immigration
In 2006, Santorum opposed the Senate's immigration reform proposal. Instead, Santorum stated that the U.S. should act to enforce currently existing laws. He has openly stated his strong opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants. He supports the construction of a barrier along the U.S.–Mexican border, an increase in the number of border patrol agents on the border, and the stationing of National Guard troops along the border. He also believes that illegal immigrants should be deported immediately when they commit crimes, and that undocumented immigrants should not receive benefits from the government. He believes English should be established as the national language in the United States.

NWS and ethics
Santorum introduced the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 to "clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service (NWS), and for other purposes". This legislation, if enacted, would prohibit the NWS from publishing weather data to the public when private-sector entities, perform the same function commercially. At the same time, Santorum said that the National Weather Service needed to be a robust organization capable of predicting serious weather conditions.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association was galvanizing support to lobby against this bill, but it never passed committee. Opponents of the bill suggested it was corporate welfare, where the private weather service companies, which often receive data from the National Weather Service, would be enabled to charge government and military agencies for that information.

The motivations surrounding this bill were controversial, as AccuWeather, a commercial weather company based in Santorum's home state, stood to profit from this legislation, and Accuweather employees had contributed at least $5500 to him since 1999. The liberal advocacy group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, subsequently listed Rick Santorum as one of its "most corrupt politicians", citing the bill as one of several reasons.

In September 2005, Santorum criticized the National Weather Service for its evacuation warnings given for Hurricane Katrina, saying they were "insufficient" and said the public suffered "serious consequences" when they fall short of "getting it right." He also suggested that people who ignored warnings and rode out the storms should have been penalized for not following government warnings. After criticism, he backtracked from his remarks and said that people who couldn't have evacuated on their own would not be penalized.

Santorum added a synthetic-fuel tax-credit amendment to a larger bill introduced in the Senate by Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who headed the Senate Finance Committee. Time Magazine called this tax-credit scheme "a multibillion-dollar scam." The amendment was inserted in the Tax Relief Act of 2006, which provides aid for Hurricane Katrina victims and sets new policies for tax-exempt groups.

ACLU suit
In 2005, four young women were ejected from a bookstore in Wilmington, Delaware, where Santorum was scheduled for a book signing, after they were overheard expressing opinions critical of the senator. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit, which was settled in 2007. As a result of the settlement, the Delaware State Police were required to pay legal fees for the plaintiffs and provide training to officers on free-speech rights. The Santorum staff members who requested the ejection were required to apologize and to relinquish their salaries for the event — $2,500.00 — to the plaintiffs in damages. A police official stated that while they had not violated the women's First Amendment rights, they "decided to settle the matter to avoid the cost of prolonged litigation."

Foreign policy
Santorum is a supporter of the War on Terror and shares the views of neoconservatives and the Bush Doctrine in regards to foreign policy. He says the war on Terror can be won and is optimistic about the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan for the long-term.

He sponsored the Syria Accountability Act of 2003, which required Syria to end all engagement in Lebanon and cease all support for terrorism. He originally wanted to go further with the bill, asking for the United States to create economic sanctions on Syria if it did not do so.[94] In June 2006, Santorum declared that weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) had been found in Iraq.

Santorum's declaration was based, in part, on declassified portions of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command.[96] The report stated that coalition forces had recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions that contain degraded or vacant mustard or sarin nerve agent casings. The specific weapons he referred to were chemical munitions dating back to the Iran–Iraq War that were buried in the early 1990s. The report stated that while agents had degraded to an unknown degree, they remained dangerous and possibly lethal.

However, officials of the Department of Defense, CIA intelligence analysts, and the White House have all explicitly stated that these expired casings were not part of the WMDs threat that the Iraq War was launched to contain.[97]

In 2005, Santorum sponsored the Iran Freedom and Support Act, which appropriated $10 million aimed at regime change in Iran. The Act passed with overwhelming support. However, Santorum nevertheless voted against the Lautenberg amendment, which would have closed the loophole that allows companies like Halliburton to do business with Iran through their foreign affiliates. He said Iran was at the center of "much of the world's conflict" but was opposed to direct military action against the country in 2006.

The Associated Press reported that on July 20, 2006, Santorum stated that "Islamic fascism rooted in Iran is behind much of the world's conflict, but he is opposed to military action against the country", in a speech where he "also defended the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay." The senator indicated that "effective action against Iran" would require America's fighting "for a strong Lebanon, a strong Israel, and a strong Iraq."

On September 7, 2006, Santorum outlined his views on foreign policy in an op-ed piece for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and discussed Islamic fascism, closing with a rally cry:

I believe we are at war with Islamic fascists and I singled out Iran and Syria as examples of Islamic fascist regimes. Many Muslims say the same thing, and the editors should, too, for it is undeniable. [...] I have said time and time again across Pennsylvania these past weeks that the fight against Islamic fascism is the great test of our generation. Leaders are obliged to articulate this threat and to propose what is necessary to defeat it. That is my purpose, and our national calling. The American people have always rallied to the cause of freedom once they understood what was at stake. I have no doubt that they will again.
—Rick Santorum”

Santorum has referred to his grandfather's historical encounter with Italian fascism as an inspiration for his 2012 presidential campaign.

During the lame-duck session of the 109th Congress, Santorum was one of only two Senators who voted against confirming the nomination of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. Santorum stated that his objection was to Gates's support for talking with Iran and Syria, because, in Santorum's view, it would be an error to talk with "radical Islam".

During his third term re-election campaign for his Senate seat against Bob Casey, Jr., Santorum introduced the term "Islamic fascism", while questioning "his opponent's ability to make the right decisions on national security at a time when 'our enemies are fully committed to our destruction.'"

Party Leadership
As early as 2002, in a PoliticsPA feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, he was named the "Most Ambitious". As chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, Santorum directed the communications operations of Senate Republicans and was a frequent party spokesperson. He was the youngest member of the Senate leadership and the first Pennsylvanian to hold such a prominent position since Senator Hugh Scott was Republican leader in the 1970s. In addition, Santorum served on the Senate Agriculture Committee; the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; the Senate Special Committee on Aging; and the Senate Finance Committee, of which he was the chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy. He also sat at the candy desk for ten years.

In January 2005, Santorum announced his intention to run for United States Senate Republican Whip, the second-highest post in the Republican caucus after the 2006 election. The move came because it was presumed the incumbent whip, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was viewed as having the inside track to succeeding Bill Frist of Tennessee as Senate Republican leader.

Post-Senate career
Career as lawyer, political consultant, and commentator
On April 12, 2007, political action committee America's Foundation, Highmark and a former Highmark vice president were fined by the Federal Election Committee for sponsoring Santorum with corporate money. The problem had been reported by Highmark, which uncovered the matter during an internal review.

In March 2007 Santorum joined Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, where he primarily practiced law in the firm's Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. offices providing business and strategic counseling services to the firm's clients. He also joined the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a D.C.-based conservative think tank.[108] Santorum was also a contributor on the Fox News Channel.

Santorum writes an Op/Ed piece titled "The Elephant in the Room" for the Commentary Page of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Santorum told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he would address many geopolitical issues, and then joked, "I don't do Anna Nicole Smith, that's all." After leaving the Senate, Santorum joined the Board of Directors of Universal Health Services, a hospital management company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Santorum earned $1.3 million in 2010 and the first half of 2011. The largest chunk of his employment earnings — $332,000 — came from his work as a consultant for groups advocating and lobbying for industry interests, such as a Pennsylvania natural gas firm, Consol Energy, and lobby firm American Continental Group. Santorum also earned $395,414 in corporate director's fees and stock options.

2008 presidential election
Before failing to win re-election in 2006, Santorum had frequently been mentioned as a possible 2008 presidential candidate. Such speculation faded when, during the course of the campaign and in light of unimpressive poll numbers, he declared that, if re-elected, he would serve a full term. After he lost, Santorum once again ruled out a presidential run.

On February 1, 2008, Santorum said he would vote for Mitt Romney in the 2008 Presidential Republican primary race, stating: "If you're a Republican, if you're a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now and that's Mitt Romney."

He has criticized John McCain, questioning his pro-life voting record and whether Sen. McCain holds true conservative values. In September 2008, Santorum expressed support for McCain, citing Sarah Palin as a step in the right direction: "Knowing McCain, he's choosing someone in whom he sees a lot of himself...He tries to find people who have a similar head as he does, and if he sees him in [Palin]...that gives me a better feel for him and a little more confidence in him." In 2011 he said McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war, did not understand how the "enhanced interrogation" process works.

2010 elections
Santorum was mentioned as a candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2010. At one point, he was said to have "quietly but efficiently put his fingerprints on a wide-array of conservative causes in the state." However, Santorum declined to seek the gubernatorial nomination and instead endorsed eventual winner Tom Corbett.[120]

2012 presidential campaign
In the fall of 2009, Santorum gave a speech at the University of Dubuque on the economy, which received media attention and fueled speculation that he would run for president in 2012. Santorum later recalled, "It got a lot of buzz on the Internet, so I thought, 'Wow, maybe there's some interest in what I have to say after all,'" and he came to the decision to campaign after multiple conversations with his wife, who was not enthusiastic at first.

On September 11, 2009, Santorum spoke to a group of Catholic leaders in Orlando, Florida and told them, "I hate to be calculating, but I see that 2012 is not just throwing somebody out to be eaten, but it's a real opportunity for success." He scheduled various appearances with political non-profit organizations that took place in Iowa.

Santorum repeated his consideration of a 2012 run in an e-mail and letter sent on January 15, 2010 to supporters of his political action committee, saying, "After talking it over with my wife Karen and our kids – I am considering putting my name in for the 2012 presidential race. I'm convinced that conservatives need a candidate who will not only stand up for our views, but who can articulate a conservative vision for our country's future," he wrote. "And right now, I just don't see anyone stepping up to the plate. I have no great burning desire to be president, but I have a burning desire to have a different president of the United States". He formed a presidential exploratory committee on April 13, 2011.

Santorum formally announced his run for the Republican presidential nomination on ABC's Good Morning America on June 6, 2011, saying he's "in it to win." He initially lagged behind in the polls.

Santorum gained as other conservative candidates slumped. By the weekend before the Iowa caucuses, polls by CNN and The Des Moines Register showed him in the top three, along with Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. The Des Moines Register also noted that momentum was with Santorum: "If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent."

In the closest finish in the history of the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were locked in a virtual dead heat in the first battle for the Republican presidential nomination. The final count put Romney as winner by a margin of eight votes.

Political positions
Santorum developed and articulated many of his political positions during his terms in office.

Iran nuclear capability
In 2012, Santorum criticized Obama for not doing enough to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Santorum said that, if elected, he would call upon Iran to open its facilities to international inspection and begin to dismantle them, and that if Iranian leaders did not comply, he would bomb the weapons sites.

Energy and environment
Santorum rejects the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change, having referred to it as "junk science"; he also embraces common threads of the global warming conspiracy theory, believing that global warming is a "beautifully concocted scheme" by the political left and "an excuse for more government control of your life."

He has stated a policy of "drill everywhere" for oil and that there is "enough oil, coal and natural gas to last for centuries".

Personal life
Santorum and his wife, Karen Garver Santorum, have six living children. Karen Santorum was a neonatal intensive care unit nurse for nine years. One child was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome (Trisomy 18), a serious genetic disorder. In 1996, after Karen developed a life-threatening infection, a son, Gabriel, was born prematurely and lived for only two hours. While pregnant, Karen Santorum developed a life-threatening intrauterine infection and a fever that reached nearly 105 degrees. She went into labor when she was 20 weeks pregnant and allowed doctors to give her Pitocin to speed the birth.

Karen Santorum wrote a book about the experience: Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum. In it, she writes that the couple brought the deceased infant home from the hospital and presented the dead child to their living children as "your brother Gabriel". The anecdote was also written about by Michael Sokolove in a 2005 New York Times Magazine story on Santorum.

"Rick and Karen Santorum would not let the morgue take the corpse of their newborn; they slept that night in the hospital with their lifeless baby between them. The next day, they took him home. 'Your siblings could not have been more excited about you!' Karen writes in the book, which takes the form of letters to Gabriel, mostly while he is in utero. 'Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, "This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel."'"

Karen Garver Santorum also authored a book on etiquette for children.

On November 12, 2004, Santorum and his wife were invested as Knight and Dame of Magistral Grace of the Knights of Malta in a ceremony at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.

Santorum traveled in 2002 to Rome to speak at a centenary celebration of the birth of Saint Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei. In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter while in Rome, Santorum said that the distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, espoused by President John F. Kennedy, had caused "great harm in America."

"All of us have heard people say, 'I privately am against abortion, homosexual marriage, stem cell research, cloning. But who am I to decide that it's not right for somebody else?' It sounds good, but it is the corruption of freedom of conscience."

Santorum earned $1.3 million between January 2010 and August 2011, including $217 385 in income from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, $142 500 from Consol Energy, and $395 414 in director fees and stock options from Universal Health Services.
Pennsylvania residency controversies

Santorum's residency has been controversial on several occasions, with Santorum's critics noting that Santorum himself had made the residency of his opponent a major campaign issue when he first ran for Congress in 1990.

In 1997 Santorum purchased a three bedroom house in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills next to the home of his wife's parents for $87,800. In 2001, however, he bought a home for for $643,000 in Leesburg, Virginia, about an hour's drive northwest of Washington, DC, and in 2007 spent $2 million to buy a 5,000-square foot home in Great Falls, Virginia, about 40 minutes from DC.

In November 2004, a controversy arose as the Penn Hills School District, which was paying 80% of the tuition costs associated the Santorum's five older children attending the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, asked Santorum to repay $67,000 in tuition costs as the district believed that he and his family were spending most of the year in Virginia and accordingly did not meet the qualifications for residency status.

Santorum disputed the assessment and withdrew his children from the cyber education program. On July 8, 2005, a Pennsylvania state hearing officer ruled that the Penn Hills School District had not filed objections to Santorum's residency in a timely manner and dismissed the complaint. Santorum hailed the ruling, saying "No one's children—and especially not small, school-age children—should be used as pawns in the 'politics of personal destruction.'"

Santorum's 2006 re-election campaign ran television commercials with Santorum's son saying "My dad's opponents have criticized him for moving us to Washington so we could be with him more." In September 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Education agreed to pay the district $55,000 to settle the dispute.

In September 2006, Santorum asked county officials to exempt his Penn Hills property from the homestead tax exemption, which applied to homeowners' primary residences. The county council president responded by saying that Santorum had "said during a televised debate that he spends about 30 days in his Penn Hills house each year.