The head of the ultra-right, Christian values group FAMiLY LEADER (the small "i" for submission) said this morning on Fox News that Rick Santorum is going to win the Iowa caucuses and suggested he will do much better than expected in Iowa. Bob Van der Plaats also said that Mitt Romney "has pretty much dissed our base." Vander Plaats gave a much sought endorsement to Santorum Dec. 20.
He has since come under fire for having made the endorsement for money, something he denied. But even Santorum admits that the two talked about money when the endorsement was being discussed. ABC News discovered that Vander Plaats had sought a pay-off for endorsing Mitt Romney in 2008. He didn't get any money and endorsed Mike Huckabee instead.
A former staffer for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential bid who is currently unaffiliated with a campaign said Vander Plaats came to them seeking money for his backing if he supported the former Massachusetts governor.
“He wanted to be paid,” the former staffer said. “He was clearly looking for a paycheck. There was a conversation about him getting a title, but being a paid consultant was much more important.”
There were hints for a while last year, after Vander Plaats defended Newt Gingrich's marital infidelities, that the former Speaker of the House would get the group's endorsement. Uncompromising zealotry can apparently be diluted with the prospect that cash may come with the deal.
The viewpoints of the chief of the FAMiLY LEADER mesh pretty closely with Santorum's. Think Progress has catalogued some of them that were included in his group's "Marriage Vow" for the 2012 candidates:
⚈ Said children were better off under slavery than they are under Obama (That item was later removed because of public outcry, but not before Michele Bachmann had signed it.)
⚈ Said homosexuality was like polygamy, adultery or polyandry
⚈ Said gays are a public health risk similar to smoking
⚈ Said homosexuality is a choice
⚈ Said Muslims are trying to impose sharia law on the United States
⚈ Said pornography should be banned
⚈ Said Barack Obama was born in Kenya and praised Donald Trump for "investigating" the matter
⚈ Accepted millions in federal funds while decrying federal spending
If Romney gets the nomination, as many analysts expect, Vander Plaats' dissing of him might have an impact on support of evangelical conservatives for the former governor whose Mormon beliefs already give some of them pause. But since Vander Plaats already has made it clear that money can influence who he supports, and has held out the prospects of sitting down to talk with Romney, the governor's campaign chiefs can probably expect a phone call from Vander Plaats if their candidate does well in New Hampshire and beyond.