WASHINGTON – In 2006, Rick Santorum was decisively tossed out of his Senate seat in Pennsylvania by 18 points, in a wave election where Democrats romped largely because of President George W. Bush’s unpopularity.

Six years later, Santorum is running for Bush’s old job, but the former president is still a weight around his neck.

Santorum was dragged down in Wednesday night’s debate by his support for a few of Bush’s initiatives.

The 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation was the Bush agenda item that hurt Santorum most in the debate. Santorum said his support for the measure was “a mistake.”

“It was against the principles I believed in, but, you know, when you’re part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the leader,” Santorum said.

Mitt Romney, ignoring the fact that he himself supported No Child Left Behind, made hay Thursday with Santorum’s ill-advised quip.

“I wonder which team he was taking it for,” Romney said at a campaign stop in Phoenix. “My team is the American people, not the insiders in Washington.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/bush-santorum-_n_1298273.html

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