Republicans across the nation call on Santorum to stop teaming up with Democrats

In a national phone conference Wednesday afternoon, prominent Republicans called on presidential candidate Rick Santorum to stop teaming up with Democrats.

Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, Alaska Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell, Idaho Superintendent of Public Schools Tom Luna, and Former United States Treasurer Bay Buchanan each provided statements and then answered questions from reporters on the call.

With the balance of Republican primaries still to come and Super Tuesday looming less than a week away, there was an overall disappointment that a Republican presidential candidate would openly invite Democrats to participate in a Republican primary.

The Washington Post had earlier reported:

Santorum himself has defended the calls in recent days, arguing that they were targeting conservative Democrats rather than liberal voters.

But the tune is different from the one Santorum was singing last month, when he told Minnesota voters on a conference call that “states should only allow Republicans to vote in Republican primaries.”

That was noted by Sununu who added that Santorum was showing his true colors by taking a page directly out of the Democratic political playbook.

Alaska's Treadwell dryly commented that the old saying was politics makes for strange bedfellows, and that Rick Santorum was really choosing strange bedfellows in the Michigan primary. Concerned because his state was coming up on a caucus next week, he said the worry was that Democrats would do the same thing in Alaska that they had done in Michigan.

The Santorum campaign robocalls urged Democrats to cross party lines. Exit polls showed that one in every 10 voters were Democrats who voted for Santorum or one of the other Republican candidates. When eyebrows were raised by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and other Republicans as well as the Romney campaign, Santorum's national press secretary stood by the decision.

Santorum lost in Michigan even with the help of Democrats but will the robocalls to Democrats hang around Santorum's neck like an albatross?

Georgia Attorney General Olens commented that at the last debate each candidate was asked for a word that best described them. Santorum picked "principled." A principled Republican, Olens noted, wouldn't ask for Democratic votes.

Cross-posted at Bearing Drift