{"id":6448,"date":"2006-01-26T12:31:45","date_gmt":"2006-01-26T17:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6448"},"modified":"2006-01-26T12:31:45","modified_gmt":"2006-01-26T17:31:45","slug":"santorums-state-of-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/santorums-state-of-denial\/","title":{"rendered":"Santorum’s state of denial"},"content":{"rendered":"

I realize that Rick Santorum is in a tough spot. Considering some of his more scandalous shenanigans, Santorum is understandably cautious about defending his record. But it’s just odd that Santorum thinks he can slip into a complete state of denial<\/a> over his role in the K Street Project.<\/p>\n

Mr. Santorum flatly denied yesterday that the meetings were an integral part of the “K Street Project.” Though publications such as The Washington Post, Roll Call and Washington Monthly have all reported that Mr. Santorum’s meetings were a central part of Mr. Norquist’s “K Street Project” strategy, Mr. Santorum said yesterday that his meetings were a separate initiative.<\/p>\n

“I had absolutely nothing to do — never met, never talked, never coordinated, never did anything — with Grover Norquist and the — quote — K Street Project,” Mr. Santorum said.<\/p>\n

“[Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid made a statement that I meet with Grover Norquist every Wednesday,” Mr. Santorum added. “I don’t meet with him every Wednesday. I have nothing to do with this project and for [Mr. Reid] to make that statement is libelous. It’s absolutely false.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Santorum told<\/a> the exact same newspaper in November, “The K Street project is purely to make sure we have qualified applicants for positions that are in town. From my perspective, it’s a good government thing.”<\/p>\n

For that matter, the record on Santorum’s role<\/a> in the K Street Project is legendary.<\/p>\n

Every week, the lobbyists present pass around a list of the jobs available and discuss whom to support. Santorum’s responsibility is to make sure each one is filled by a loyal Republican — a senator’s chief of staff, for instance, or a top White House aide, or another lobbyist whose reliability has been demonstrated. After Santorum settles on a candidate, the lobbyists present make sure it is known whom the Republican leadership favors. “The underlying theme was [to] place Republicans in key positions on K Street. Everybody taking part was a Republican and understood that that was the purpose of what we were doing,” says Rod Chandler, a retired congressman and lobbyist who has participated in the Santorum meetings. “It’s been a very successful effort.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Santorum “never did anything” with the K Street Project? He led<\/i> the K Street Project.<\/p>\n

But if Santorum thinks Harry Reid’s charges are “libelous,” I can only hope he’s willing to go to court over this. Just imagine what the discovery process would be like….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I realize that Rick Santorum is in a tough spot. Considering some of his more scandalous shenanigans, Santorum is understandably cautious about defending his record. But it’s just odd that Santorum thinks he can slip into a complete state of denial over his role in the K Street Project. Mr. Santorum flatly denied yesterday that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}