And nothing more than a shill for Bush, as is made obvious in this NYT piece:
Almost no one is a more outspoken advocate of President Bush's Social Security plan than Senator Rick Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership, who is campaigning across his state this week, trying to get young people to focus on their retirement.
This is a key element of the Republican strategy, creating an energized and mobilized younger generation fighting for its piece of an ownership society.
But there is a problem with that approach: retirees and those near retirement, a legendary political force, refuse to be shut out of the debate. At Widener University in Chester on Tuesday afternoon, people over 50 occupied perhaps half the seats at a forum held by Mr. Santorum and asked many of the questions - most of them negative.
At one point, Mr. Santorum looked out at the raised hands and said somewhat plaintively: "I'm seeing a lot of older hands. I'm not seeing any younger hands."
And still they kept coming, the "older hands," with questions that were not really questions.
As both parties take stock of the grass roots on Social Security during this Congressional recess, Pennsylvania underscores the political challenge for Republicans. It is a state with a disproportionate number of older Americans; 15.6 percent of the population was over 65 in the 2000 census, a number exceeded only by Florida.
If you want to win Pennsylvania, you have to win the older voters. And they're not going to be voting for Social Security reform. It's about time this blue state got a blue senator....
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