Myths around Santorum hard to swallow

And so it begins, Myths around Santorum hard to swallow.

"While it's true that Mr. Santorum has relatively humble roots, he's become a millionaire since losing his Senate re-election bid in 2006. He was compensated generously for a column he wrote for Philly.com, if you can believe that bit of irony. He's also a former consultant for Consol Energy and a recipient of generous director fees from the King of Prussia-based Universal Health Services Inc., the same company the federal government sued in 2010 for Medicaid fraud.

Many folks in southwestern Pennsylvania are still stewing over the notorious 2006 cyber-schooling fight Mr. Santorum had with the Penn Hills School District. That bizarre and pointless scandal was about who would foot the tuition bill for the education of the Santorum children after the family had decamped to Virginia. The family wanted to stick working-class Penn Hills with the bill.

Mr. Santorum, who was in the middle of his failed Senate run at the time, implausibly claimed that his children were still residents of Penn Hills, contrary to reality. These days the Santorum family is way past dissembling about the small house at the center of that dispute. With proceeds from his post-Senate hustling bulging his pockets, Mr. Santorum bought a $2 million home in Great Falls, Va., a neighborhood not likely to be populated by many Reagan Democrats.

Mr. Santorum will figure prominently in this column in the weeks to come. We've only scratched the surface when it comes to his unlikely and ridiculous run for the presidency."