Squirrel!

You may have missed them, but awhile back Rick Santorum was being praised, or at east packaged, as the populist working-man’s candidate for the Right (example). He made a ripple earlier this year for this

When all you do is talk to people who are owners, talk to folks who are ‘Type As’ who want to succeed economically, we’re talking to a very small group of people,” he said. “No wonder they don’t think we care about them. No wonder they don’t think we understand them. Folks, if we’re going to win, you just need to think about who you talk to in your life.”

Trying to carve out a role as a leading populist in the 2016 field, Santorum insisted that Republicans must “talk to the folks who are worried about the next paycheck,” not the CEOs.

But today I read that Santorum was on CNN complaining that the Affordable Care Act was allowing “sicker, older” people to be insured. That’s going to cause terrible problems for insurance companies.

So, they can make populist noises if someone writes a speech for them, but they seem to be easily distracted.

And, of course, there’s that thing with women expecting their insurance to pay for birth control, even if it violates the tender spiritual sensibilities of their employers.

Amid reports that the gender gap is getting wider, Ryan Cooper points out that 99 percent of sexually active women use birth control. So who are they trying to pander to with the anti-contraceptive talk? There are a lot more sexually active women in America than there are control-freak right-wing business owners.