The Stanifesto

When the going gets tough, the tough go Green

It would be a great story if Senator Rick Santorum took his family to see An Inconvenient Truth and left the theater realizing that his Grand Old Party was defecating all over the world he was planning on leaving to his children, invoking in him a profound shift of character which culminated in his full endorsement of the local Green Party. The truth is profoundly shiftier.

The online news source TPMmuckraker (the TPM, in this case, standing for Talking Points Memo) reported this afternoon:

Every single contributor to the Pennsylvania Green Party Senate candidate is actually a conservative—except for the candidate himself.
Yeah, really. The Republicans are funding efforts to get the Green Party on the ballot in order to split the votes for the Democrats. Brilliant! They must have some pretty creative, outside-the-box thinkers on that campaign. Some of them may even use Macs! The whole list is available at Attytood.

Why the sudden change of heart? It may have something to do with Santorum getting a tighter race than he bargained for from his Democratic opponent, Robert Casey. In these days of gerry-mandered districts and bought elections, it's nice to see incumbants with a healthy dose of "Fear of the People".

Other extreme tactics he's employing? How about facing off against Tubemeister Senator Ted Stevens in trying to prevent the Network Neutrality bill from ever making it to the Senate floor (knowing he'd get hammered for voting against The Internet)? Or maybe labeling his opponent as a terrorist-lover by saying Casey took money from Al-Jazeera. Except that it was a different Al-Jazeerah. Oops.