Romney Surrogate Jim Talent Continues to Trash His Own Senatorial Record

Senator Jim Talent, now a Distinguished Fellow with Heritage.org and a Romney surrogate, has been busily attacking Senator Rick Santorum the last couple of weeks on issues it turns out Talent himself supported. This has taken throwing people under the bus to a new level. Talent is now trashing his own senatorial record.

First, Talent attacked Santorum for voting for Medicare Part D. But, it turned out that Talent himself not only voted for it but bragged about his part in passing Medicare Part D in his losing 2006 senatorial re-election campaign. From Talent's campaign page:

"In December 2003, Senator Talent was a leader in helping pass the Medicare Prescription Drug plan which is now providing affordable prescription drug coverage to hundreds of thousands of Missouri seniors, many for the first time."

Then Talent attacked Santorum for being pro-Big Labor and union-friendly.

"Other than social issues, Santorum is 'a member of the liberal wing of the Republican party,' former Sen. Jim Talent told reporters on a conference call this week, adding that Santorum supported union-friendly bills that 'intrude on employer rights.'"

Guess who was even more big labor and union-friendly than Santorum? You guessed it, Senator Talent.

"These are Santorum's [AFL-CIO] ratings for the rest of his time in office: 1997, 19; 1998, 15; 1999, 17; 2000, 14; 2001, 14; 2002, 14; 2003, 12; 2004, 12; 2005, 11; 2006, 13.

"For some comparisons, in 2004, 2005, and 2006, Sen. Talent's ratings were 16, 15, and 22 -- all higher than Santorum's."

Now the Heritage.org Distinguised Fellow and Romney surrogate is decrying Santorum's plan to incentivize manufacturing.

"'Senator Santorum’s treatment of manufacturing amounts to a very substantial government interference in the way the market would invest capital,' Talent says. 'When you have that big a difference, in particular, in the corporate-tax break on manufacturing, then you’ll have all the logical consequences of the government getting involved.'"

Well, guess who was for government interference, tax breaks and incentives for specific types of businesses when he was in office? Yep. From Talent's 2006 senatorial campaign page:

on incentivizing agricultural development:

"[Senator Talent] fought for agriculture assistance centers and tax incentives that would aid our producers, help bolster the economy and create jobs in rural America. Senator Talent's legislation to provide value-added grants for agriculture innovation centers was signed into law as part of the 'Agriculture Risk Protection Act.'"

on incentivizing women led businesses and home businesses

"In particular, [Senator Talent] succeeded in . . . restoring the tax deduction for those operating businesses at home, helping women start their own businesses . . . .

not only incentivizing renewable energy but requiring oil companies to get into renewable fuels:

"In the summer of 2005, Senator Talent led the fight to add a Renewable Fuels Standard to the Energy bill against the oil companies who opposed the plan. Senator Talent succeeded and now the oil companies are required to add at least 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel to the nation's fuel supply by 2012."

This would be comic if it didn't reflect so poorly on Governor Romney's campaign, Heritage.org, and reporters like Robert Costa at National Review who obviously did no research on Talent's "incentivizing" background.