Rick Santorum Confronts Mitt Romney Over SuperPAC Ad At South Carolina Debate

At Monday night’s Republican Presidential Debate on Fox News, former Sen. Rick Santorum delivered a series of gut-busting punches to Mitt Romney, both on style and substance, over a pro-Romney SuperPAC ad that accused Santorum of voting to allow felons to vote. Santorum lit into Romney over the ad’s misleading style, and laid a neat trap for him on the substance of the policy in question.

Moderator Juan Williams began by asking Santorum if the negative attacks in the campaign should be stopped.

Santorum responded by saying that he has run a positive campaign, then set his sights on Romney. “Governor Romney’s SuperPAC has put an add out there suggesting that I voted to allow felons to vote from prison,” noting that the ad featured a prisoner in a jumpsuit in the background.

He then turned and asked Romney, “do you believe people who were felons who served their time, who have extended, exhausted their parole and probation, should they be given the right to vote?”

Romney tried to launch into his “I don’t control the PACs” bit, but Santorum cut him off.

“I”m looking for an answer to the question first,” Santorum said, to huge applause.

Romney replied, “We have plenty of time. I’ll get there. I’ll do it in the order I want to do it.”

Santorum continued to press Romney for an answer to the policy question, noting that “it’s actually my time.”

The Senator then pointed out that the vote Romney’s SuperPAC was referring to was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2002, and that “this is a huge deal in the African-American community because we have very high rates of incarceration, disproportionately high rates, particularly with drug crimes in the African-American community.”

Then came the setup. “I voted to allow them to have their voting rights back once they completed their sentence. Do you agree with that?”

Romney “cleverly” answered, “I don’t think people who have committed violent crimes should be allowed to vote again. That’s my own view.”

“Very interesting you should say that,” Santorum replied, glee barely restrained, “because in the state of Massachusetts when you were governor, the law was that not only could violent felons vote after they exhausted their sentences, but they could vote while they were on probation and parole, which was a more liberal position that I took when I voted for the bill in congress.”

Game, set, and match: Santorum.

Romney may be a near dead-lock for the nomination at this point, but this exchange hardly instills confidence that he’s ready to take the debate stage with President Obama.

Here’s the exchange, from Fox News, followed by the ad in question:

Here’s the ad Santorum was referring to:

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.