Rick Santorum is pitching himself in South Carolina as the principled, limited-government conservative that other conservatives should rally around in order to stop Mitt Romney and offer a sharp contrast to President Obama in November. But his quest is complicated by a fiscal record in Congress that once alienated the same types of conservatives he’s trying to attract now—and they’re talking about what they view as his transgressions.

Last week the headlines were all about Pennsylvania native son Senator Rick Santorum after he finished second in the Iowa caucus by eight votes. Tonight, the headlines turned back to front runner Governor Mitt Romney when he made history by becoming the first non-incumbent Republican presidential candidate to win Iowa and New Hampshire.

“That’s the second best alternative,” he said of replacing Biden. “A better alternative is to make Hillary the [presidential] nominee. As long as we’re talking about dumping, let’s go to the core problem.”

Rick Santorum took aim at Mitt Romney during his first debate as a primary front runner. PoliticsPA reports from Manchester, NH.

Electability is more important than conservative orthodoxy, according to one prominent Philadelphia-area Tea Party.