An NCR profile of Sen. Rick Santorum

Following George W. Bush’s 2004 victory, there was considerable talk in conservative circles of a Santorum 2008 presidential bid. Today, Santorum downplays the speculation, saying that familial and senatorial obligations preclude him from spending the time in Iowa and New Hampshire that would be necessary to launch a serious bid. (He doesn’t, however, rule out some unforeseen circumstances that might lead him to alter his calculation.)

Like Ted Kennedy (traditional liberalism), Hillary Clinton (restoration), and John McCain (Teddy Roosevelt-style Republicanism), Santorum represents more than the state that sent him to the Senate. He’s a senator from an idea, a leader with a national constituency.

In mid-August, It Takes a Family reached number 13 on The New York Times bestseller list.

“To us, he’s the preeminent Catholic politician in America,” says Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation, a Washington-based pro-life group. The “us” Ruse refers to are conservative Catholics, loyal to the magisterium, to this pope and his predecessor. “He’s a living, breathing, daily communicant who’s in the Senate leadership so all of us know that the things that we care about are discussed at the highest levels of the U.S. government,” says Ruse.

Some see that as a political liability in the Keystone State.

“He has got to stop being the senator from the cultural right and be the senator from Pennsylvania,” Franklin and Marshall College political scientist Terry Madonna recently told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.

Perhaps.

But Neri and others point out that in 15 years in public life, in three congressional races and two bruising senatorial contests, Santorum has never lost an election. “Santorum’s supporters will tell you that one of Rick’s strengths is that he always speaks his mind,” says Neri.

From another venue – Ignatius Insight – a June 2005 interview with Santorum