Rick Santorum sends out the Big Guns - his wife

Rick Santorum got his kids out to lie for him in a TV commercial awhile back.

Now that, in terms of his poll numbers, things have gone pretty much from mediocre to frighteningly mediocre, Rick has done what every true blue family man does - he sends his wife out to fight for him.

And fight she did - yesterday on the very friendly airspace of Pittsburgh's own Fred Honsberger. You can hear the clip here.

I took notes.

She seems to be insisting that her family lives in Penn Hills . Even after Fred tossed her a softball question about the family living in "Suburban Washington" (he said they live there because all the Senators live there) she answered that she couldn't think of a better place to live - in Penn Hills next to her parents.

Answer - They don't live in Penn Hills. Rick admitted on Marty Griffin's KDKA show that he spends about 90% of his time in Washington DC. She's lying.

She charged that Bob Casey is opting to "duck" the issues and focuss instead on her children and where they sleep or are schooled. She called the attacks "unconscionable."

Answer - No one has attacked the Santorum children. The criticism is precisely the lie that Mrs Santorum continues to peddle - that they all live in Penn Hills.

Here's the scary part. When Fred asked her considering how tough this campaign is, whether there's a point at which they just say it's not worth it, she answered that it's God's will for Rick to be in the Senate (or maybe it was God's will for Rick to run for the Senate - I'm still not sure).

Answer - I really have nothing to say about it except to ask, how scary is that?

The Santorums think it's God's will for him to be in the United States Senate. Did God tell them that directly? Do they think that any other Senators were similarly instructed and if so, who? And if they believe that's the case, do they think that Satan is trying to get Bob Casey elected in order to thwart some God's divine plan? Do they feel that God is on their side politically?

I want to know the answers to those questions.

Additinally, now that she's injected herself into the rough and tumble world of politics, I'd like to ask her about something Tom Ferrick brought up last year (apologies for the cache copy - the original is for subscription only):

And I was helpfully pointed to several news articles from 2003 that reported that Karen Santorum had a job in the late 1990s. She was a $4,000-a-month consultant for BrabenderCox, an advertising firm run by John Brabender, who always has been the honcho behind Santorum's Senate elections.

"She helped us try to get accounts and often acted as our Washington representative," Brabender told UPI. "She was both a stay-at-home mom and a professional at the same time."

So there you have it. The best of both worlds.

A stay at home mom who goes out and makes four grand a month working for the firm her husband pays beaucoup bucks to? Doesn't that have at least the hint of impropriety?

I won't bother asking her about this article from USNews titled "20 Things about Rick Santorum." Go read it yourself. Let me know if you notice anything odd.

Karen Santorum - now a negative campaigner for husband Rick