Santorum begins at home

Last night, I wrote a about Rick Santorum, who until recently had been stealing Pennsylvanian taxpayer's money to pay for his kids to go to cyberschool. The bill for past theft totals around $100,000, and the local school board has begun to try and get that money back.

But all of that is just a tree in the larger forest missed:

All of which begs a much bigger question: Is Rick Santorum R-Pa. or R-Va.? No one should represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate because he once lived here or because he visits all 67 counties every year. A traveling salesman can do that.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution says, "No person shall be a Senator ... who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen." Rick Santorum last won election in November 2000, when he owned the house at 111 Stephens Lane in Penn Hills plus a house in Virginia. Where he was an "inhabitant" at the time only he can say.

He faces re-election in 2006, but if that election were held today, the two-term Republican would be hard-pressed to convince voters that he inhabits a house on Stephens Lane. Sure, he and his wife pay taxes on the house. They also use the address for voter registration, but so do two other people. When a Post-Gazette reporter visited the house last Friday, a young man came to the door and declined to comment. He wasn't Rick Santorum.

It gets worse. The two-bedroom house that the Santorum children called home for education purposes and that gives Mr. and Mrs. Santorum the right to vote in Pennsylvania lacks an occupancy permit. And the property tax break from the homestead exemption claimed by the Santorums on the Penn Hills house is allowed under law only if the dwelling is their "permanent home."

The editorial notes that Santorum's initial campaign for the House focused on the fact that his incumbent rival lived mostly in Virginia instead of Pennsylvania. Now Santorum has fallen into the same trap, and bilked the residents of his state out of $100,000 because of it.

This issue would be gold in the hands of a capable Democratic challenger. One can only hope this gets down.