The American Spectator

There is already some talk of Sen. Rick Santorum making a play for a senior position in the Bush Administration, but there are some inside the party who would prefer he simply go away for a while after what is expected to be a light lame duck session, should one even occur.

The anger toward Santorum is palapable in some quarters, particularly among Republican strategists who felt the national party and Senatorial campaign committee should have cut back financial and other resouces to his floundering campaign and refocused those resources elsewhere, such as in Missouri, Maryland and Minnesota.

In the end though, it’s doubtful that money was the downfall for Republicans, who walked away from some of their best issues and lost such important voting blocks as white, Roman Catholics. “Why we didn’t push harder on the judges issue around the country is beyond me,” says one longtime Republican observer. “We’d done a lot, but there was still more to be done.” Similar thoughts go to Sen. George Allen’s seeming desire to separate himself from the marriage amendment being voted on in Virginia. The amendment out-polled Allen, and easily won across the state.