Rick Santorum Quits, Newt Gingrich Bounces Checks . . .

And News that Requires Commentary

Somebody told Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum that he was going to lose his home state of Pennsylvania in its upcoming primary.  As a result Mr. Santorum finally recognized what everybody else has known since the Michigan primary, Mr. Santorum was not going to be the Republican nominee and Mr. Romney was. 

So in order to avoid the humiliation of losing his home state (Mr. Romney won his home state of  . . .fill in the blank; even Mr. Gingrich won his home state) Mr. Santorum quit.  Of course what he really did was ‘suspend’ his campaign, so he can legally keep on raising money.  Exactly who will now give money to the Santorum campaign is not clear, but then it was never clear who was willing to give money to it in the first place.

In Utah the check to the local authorities to get on the Utah primary ballot sent by the Gingrich campaign bounced.  And Mr. Gingrich continues to raise the question as to why his candidacy was never taken seriously.  There is no truth to the rumor that Mr. Gingrich said the check would have been good on Mars.

Nate Silver of the New York Times raises the question about what the future holds for Mr. Santorum.  The belief here is that Mr. Santorum will be allowed to make a prime time speech at the Republican convention, which in Mr. Santorum’s view will be the kickoff for his 2016 or 2020 campaign.  For everyone else it will hopefully be the last time the general public is exposed to a man who said he ‘threw up’ at the thought of the Kennedy speech affirming separation of church and state and a man who called President Obama a ‘snob’ for wanting everyone to have the opportunity to go to college.

The future for Mr. Santorum is probably making a lot of money.  He will give  highly paid speeches to groups who want to impose their religious views on Americans, he will provide commentary on Fox News and of course he can probably continue his past career of peddling influence (it’s called lobbying by people more polite than The Dismal Political Economist).  This will generate his $1 million plus income and position him in the minds of the mindless media to present himself as a champion of the working class Americans.

In Miami the new manager of the local baseball team made a huge unforced error.  In the heart of the Cuban refugee section of the country he expressed admiration and respect for Fidel Castro.  He has been suspended, but that is wrong, because no one should take seriously anything said by a person this stupid.

In a stunning development the University of Arkansas chose integrity over football and fired the head football coach, Bobby Petrino who committed numerous infractions involving a young lady not named Mrs. Petrino.  Because Mr. Petrino had been a winning football coach very few people, including this one expected the University to fire him. But Jeff Long, the Athletic Driector did and did not sugar coat the wording.

Petrino also admitted to an inappropriate relationship with the woman, Jessica Dorrell. Dorrell was hired by Petrino as the student-athlete development coordinator weeks ago.

Long said Petrino "knowingly misled" him and the athletics department, and that Petrino had multiple opportunities to be forthcoming about the details of the accident. He wasn't.

Long said he learned during his review that Dorrell received $20,000 from Petrino and was also hired from a pool of 159 applicants for the job with the athletic department. Long said the Petrino-Dorrell relationship had been going on for "a significant period of time."

"In this case, coach Petrino abused his authority when he made a staff hire that benefited himself and jeopardized integrity of football program," Long said.

Long became emotional during the press conference when discussing how he and players had been deceived by Petrino.

At one point, Long was asked if he thought Petrino was bigger than the program.

"Yes," Long said.


For an explanation of why Mr. Petrino did what he did, there is this.

Petrino left Louisville to coach the Atlanta Falcons, and with three games left in his first season in 2007, he earned his scorn both in N.F.L. circles and among his players when he bolted for Arkansas.

DeAngelo Hall, a former Falcons defensive back, said last weekend: “Trouble always follows him and it’s mostly by the decisions he’s made. He’s a clown. I have a 10-year old son and I would never ever send him to a college to play for a coach or a person like Petrino.”