Words for Santorum

But not parting words. He’s too gifted and talented to go away, after losing to Bob Casey Jr. Santorum will re-emerge to serve another day…

But I had to get this in here. It’s a Peggy Noonan piece from the Wall Street Journal shortly before the election. I posted on it then, but had to delete it because of a technical problem on the blog domain. It didn’t solve the glitch, so the tweaking will continue.

Meanwhile, I think there’s considerable potential for some voters to regret what they did or didn’t do on Tuesday. One of the things I regret is losing Sen. Rick Santorum and the service he gave the Senate, and not just for Pennsylvanians. He represented people and values across the nation.

Rick Santorum’s career (two Senate terms, before that two in the House) suggests he has thought a great deal about the balance, and concluded that in our time the national is the local. Federal power is everywhere; so are the national media.(The biggest political change since JFK’s day is something he, 50 years ago, noted: the increasing nationalization of everything.) And so he has spoken for, and stood for, the rights of the unborn, the needs of the poor, welfare reform when it was controversial, tax law to help the family; against forcing the nation to accept a redefining of marriage it does not desire, for religious freedom here and abroad, for the helpless in Africa and elsewhere. It is all, in its way, so personal. And so national. He has breached the gap with private action: He not only talks about reform of federal law toward the disadvantaged, he hires people in trouble and trains them in his offices.

Santorum issues are hot issues, and raise passions pro and con.

And so his opponent(s) capitalized on the ones they could stir voters’ passions on, against Santorum. But he can’t be so easily pigeonholed.

Mr. Santorum has been at odds with the modernist impulse, or liberalism, or whatever it now and fairly should be called. Most of his own impulses–protect the unprotected, help the helpless, respect the common man–have not been conservative in the way conservative is roughly understood, or portrayed, in the national imagination. If this were the JFK era, his politics would not be called “right wing” but “progressive.” He is, at heart, a Catholic social reformer. Bobby Kennedy would have loved him.

This made it into mainstream print because Peggy Noonan has that kind of stature, but also that keen insight into how religion really plays into politics, and especially in the daily life and service of this politician.

I end with a story too corny to be true, but it’s true. A month ago Mr. Santorum and his wife were in the car driving to Washington for the debate with his opponent on “Meet the Press.” Their conversation turned to how brutal the campaign was, how hurt they’d both felt at all the attacks. Karen Santorum said it must be the same for Bob Casey and his family; they must be suffering. Rick Santorum said yes, it’s hard for them too. Then he said, “Let’s say a Rosary for them.” So they prayed for the Caseys as they hurtled south.

A friend of mine called them while they were praying. She told me about it later, but didn’t want it repeated. “No one would believe it,” she said.

But I asked Mr. Santorum about it. Sure, he said, surprised at my surprise. “We pray for the Caseys every night. We know it’s as hard for them as it is for us.”

Personally I’ll shed no tear for the careerists of either party who win or lose, nor for the BlackBerryed gargoyles in the second row of the SUV who tell them how to think and where to stand. That means this election night will be, for me, a dry-eyed affair.

But if Rick Santorum goes down to the defeat all expect, I will feel it. Like the crusty old moderate Republican, I know a national loss when I see one.

Having interviewed him at key moments for some of the great and vital issues of the day — and followed his public service for many years — I couldn’t agree more.