The prison metaphor

You'd think Rick Santorum, already suffering in his re-election bid, would not want to draw attention to how bad the prisons are in his home state. But that's exactly what he does:

The Guantanamo Bay lockup that houses "enemies of the United States" probably offers better conditions than half of the prisons in Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Friday.

I would think this is exaggeration on ole Ricky's part, but maybe, just maybe you'd want to address the prison conditions in your home state rather than using them to try and score political points.