Santorum facing heat for Amtrak flip-flop

Sen. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum, at least at first, was prepared to take a bold stand against Bush’s plan to gut funding for Amtrak. In late February, Santorum appeared on Meet the Press and said the White House budget for the system was “not acceptable to me” and predicted it would not pass.

True to form, when the issue reached the Senate floor, Santorum’s tough talk wilted into compliance with the Bush agenda. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) introduced an amendment to restore $1 billion in operating subsidies to Amtrak and Santorum, despite his earlier pledge, reversed course and voted against the amendment. Santorum, in other words, flip-flopped in a rather brazen way.

You’ll be pleased to know that Santorum’s critics aren’t letting this slip by.

Erasing any doubts that they will wage a protracted, scorched-earth campaign to win a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, Democrats and their allies wasted little time last week highlighting what they see as Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R) hypocrisy on the issue of Amtrak funding.

A group of union leaders fired off a letter to Santorum accusing the Republican of flip-flopping and ignoring the needs of his state by recently voting against restoring more than $1 billion in funding for the national passenger railroad corporation in next year’s budget.

In 2000, then-Rep. Ron Klink (D) never gained traction in his race against Santorum, in part because the unions’ relationship with the Dem candidate were lukewarm, at best. For 2006, not only is Bob Casey Jr. a close labor ally, but Santorum is giving the unions powerful ammunition by going along with Bush’s plan to cut Amtrak subsidies, as part of a high-profile flip-flop.

Santorum is the Dems’ #1 target and the GOP’s #1 priority. It should be fun.