Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum took his campaign to the nation's highest court on Monday to speak out against health care reform, but he found efforts frustrated by another group who were also exercising their free rights on the Supreme Court's steps.
"This is a very, very important day for America," the candidate said as protesters around began to chant, "Health care is a right! Health care is a right!"
Santorum showed up at the court as a stunt to point out that the justices were hearing arguments of the constitutionality of a health care reform law similar to one that rival Mitt Romney signed as governor of Massachusetts.
"There is one candidate who is uniquely disqualified to make the case," Santorum claimed, referring to Romney. "It's the reason I'm here and he's not, the reason that I talk about Obamacare and its impact on the economy and on fundamental freedoms and Mitt Romney doesn't. It's because he can't."
At a campaign event on Sunday, the candidate lashed out at New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny after he questioned why he asserted that Romney was the "worst Republican in the country" to go up against Democratic President Barack Obama.
"Quit distorting my words," Santorum complained. "If I see it, it’s bullshit! Come on man, what are you doing?!"
Standing in front of the Supreme Court, the former Pennsylvania senator held up his attack on Zeleny as a badge of honor.
"I don't regret taking on a New York Times reporter who was out of line," he told members of the press. "If you're a conservative and you haven't taken on a New York Times reporter, you're not worth your salt as far as I'm concerned. So, we're going to stand up and fight the twisting of remarks that we've seen in this campaign -- in part, authored by the Romney campaign, which is feeding these kinds of lines to the reporters."
By that point, the pro-health care demonstrators around Santorum were singing the protest anthem "We Shall Overcome."
"I'm having trouble hearing questions," the candidate noted when asked to predict how the court would rule.
"Obviously, I don't believe that Obamacare is constitutional," he replied. "I've always been for free-market health care, not for government-run health care."
