Nervous Santorum boosters donate to Green Party

Pennsylvania's Rick "Spreading" Santorum is widely regarded to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents in this year's election, and with good reason. He's gone out of his way to show public support for the most unpopular White House policies and continually embarrassed himself in the national media ("I found the WMDs") and in his home state (too numerous to mention, but his fantasies about Democratic spies were especially good, considering that the "Santorum family home" alleged to be under surveillance was empty at the time).

Santorum's opponent, Bob Casey, is ahead in the polls and the odds-on favorite. But now members of the state's Republican party have hit on a new tactic to win the election-- bring in a spoiler.

Thanks to the generosity of GOP donors, a Green Party candidate is expected to make it onto the ballot in Pennsylvania's Senate race and siphon votes from Democratic front-runner Bob Casey in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli, making his first bid for statewide elective office, acknowledged Monday that Republican contributors probably supplied most of the $100,000 that he said he spent gathering signatures to qualify for the Nov. 7 ballot.

Romanelli said he expects to turn in far more than the required 67,070 signatures by Tuesday's deadline.

"I have friends in all political parties. It's just that my Republican friends are more confident about standing with me than my Democratic friends. And as a group, my Republican friends are a little better off," he said in a telephone interview.

If Romanelli thinks he has a bunch of rich new friends in the GOP, he might be as delusional as Santorum.