SIEGE OF SANTORUM ESCALATES – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  As night follows day, as soon as a Republican candidate starts rising in the polls, the press suddenly "discovers" that he has sinned, and sinned mightily. 

The new target is Rick Santorum, who, we are now informed breathlessly, has made money.  From the Washington Post:

Rick Santorum has vaulted to the front ranks of the Republican presidential nomination race in part by depicting himself as a religious family man of lowly beginnings who would bring needed change to Washington.

But that characterization leaves out two decades in which Santorum was a central and often high-ranking player in Washington politics, with connections to K Street lobbyists and a lucrative consulting career that made him a millionaire.

In the Senate, for example, he played a pivotal role in advancing the controversial K Street Project, a highly organized effort to pressure industry groups and lobbying firms to hire Republicans for influential jobs and punish those who brought in Democrats. ­Santorum oversaw regular Tuesday meetings with lobbyists in which he solicited their views on pending legislation and discussed potential jobs, according to documents and news reports and a lobbyist who attended the meetings.

COMMENT:  You know, just once I'd like to see a liberal paper do a projected hit piece on a Republican candidate and finally say, "This paper has come to the conclusion that he's a great guy, stand-up fella, well loved by people around him, and has never cheated on his wife.  And his kids aren't spoiled.  And he wears reasonably priced shoes."

Hope springs eternal.

January 6, 2012