Santorum stumps in Des Moines, touts himself as outsider

DES MOINES – Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is offering his GOP presidential candidacy as the best of both worlds for 2016 voters upset with Washington by touting himself as an outsider who once rocked the status-quo political boat while he was on the inside.

Santorum, who has spent several days courting Iowans and is the only candidate to already have visited all 99 counties this election cycle, said he understands the voter interest in someone who will go to Washington and shake up the partisan dysfunction that is gripping the federal government.

However, he warned against sending a presidential novice into 'the shark tank” that is Washington, noting that he spent four years in the House and 12 years in the Senate as a change agent and 'knows where the sharks are” in working to make fundamental, conservative changes.

'If you want people who can shake things up, I'm the guy,” he told a group of Drake University law students, noting his role as one of 'the gang of seven” that helped to expose a House banking scandal in the 1990s and reformed the nation's welfare system.

Billionaire businessman/entertainer Donald Trump, former tech company CEO Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are the top GOP contenders in recent public-opinion polls, but Santorum said he expects that to change as voters settle in and look for candidates with a record of leadership, accomplishments and winning elections. The problem with electing a political newcomer to be the next U.S. president is they will have to hire a band of Washington 'insiders” as part of a new administration to keep from being 'devoured by the fish that are there,” he said.

'Think about the fact that we're going to nominate someone potentially for president who has never successfully run a race, that's a little scary thing when you're going against a team on the other side who has run a lot of races and knows how to win those things. This is a big deal,” he told an Iowa radio audience Tuesday.

'I think Iowans, over the next four months, are going to figure out that we need someone who is an outsider, someone who can shake things up, but also someone who can get into that fish tank and survive and get things done,” Santorum said during an appearance on a WHO-AM talk show.

'We need to elect someone here in Iowa, who is a strong conservative, who's an outsider, who will shake up Washington and has the knowledge and ability to swim in that dirty tank and get things done. There's only one candidate in this race who can do it,” he added in touting his credentials.

During a lunch-hour town-hall meeting sponsored by the Iowa Caucus Consortium, Santorum said his answer to climate change is not more government regulations that hurt U.S. businesses, but to focus on bolstering manufacturing by easing tax policies, eliminating all energy-related subsidies, and making other reforms that will bring jobs back to America from China and India and their lax environmental laws that are fueling pollution and carbon emissions.

Asked about the civility of this year's presidential campaign, Santorum said he refuses to engage in the 'food fight” of attacking other candidated, but he blamed President Barack Obama for creating 'an atmosphere of toxicity” in Washington by injecting personal attacks in an already dysfunctional political discourse in Washington.