Santorum Surges; Romney Angers Running-Dog Lackey Base

Primary day in Minnesota and Colorado, and Rick Santorum is polling remarkably well. The latest PPP poll has Santorum at 33 percent in the former, with Mitt Romney second at 24, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul close behind. In Colorado Santorum is polling a strong second behind Mr. Romney, and Tuesday could shape up to be Mr. Santorum’s day.

Interpretation of the Santorum surge, such as it is, centers around a palpable dislike by the conservative base of Mr. Romney, combined with a definite distrust that Mr. Gingrich can refrain from behaving insanely at some point in the next 10 months. Remaining is Rick Santorum, with Ron Paul too much a quirky Libertarian outlier to fit neatly in any political party other than, well, the Libertarian Party.

We wish Mr. Santorum all the best today, as we yearn for great rending and strife on the Republican side all the way to the convention in Tampa. If he does do well, we will enjoy writing about his numerous sins, including his work with the K Street Project, that most unique of Republican lobbying syndicates. Also forthcoming, Rick Santorum and the Gays, chronicling his incessant assault on the freedoms of LGBT individuals for the past 20 years, and the Savage response it engendered. For now, though, we will wait and see if he becomes a legitimate alternative to Mr. Romney.

God knows the boot-licking lackey base of the GOP would like an alternative. Mr. Romney recently spoke in favor of increasing minimum wage, tying it to inflation, a concept anathema to the Three Mouseketeers, I mean, the Free Marketeers of the Right. The super-rich DO NOT like to lose a single nickel to the hoi polloi, and they hire "economists" to spout – and shout – their drivel. The GOP plan for maximum employment, if they had the guts to admit it: Rip the planet to shreds, employ everybody in sweatshop conditions at two dollars an hour (giving the straw bosses $2.25 so they can feel like WINNERS); rathole the profits and laugh on their yachts how they bs'ed idiots into voting for it. On this issue, there is no nuance. There is no complexity. The super-rich want it all, are succeeding in taking it all, and the sooner the rest of us realize that, the sooner we can figure out how to prevent it from happening.

Mr. Romney very occasionally gets it right, and when he does, the jackboot-licking base goes all apoplectic. This Tuesday, Mr. Santorum could be the beneficiary of their demented rage.