Santorum: Obama Guilty of ‘Habitual Abuse of Power’

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that Mitt Romney needs to step up criticism of President Barack Obama’s “now habitual abuse of power,” in the wake of the decision to give amnesty to children of illegal immigrants.

“To me, the most outrageous thing was the process in which he did it,” Santorum said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The president basically said I’m going to selectively enforce the law.

"There’s a difference between someone who is actually out there on the street making a call as to whether to charge somebody with a crime or not than have a policy at the top saying that we are going to carte blanche order people not to enforce the law,” according to the former Pennsylvania senator.

Santorum said Romney is trying to walk a fine line in discussing immigration to show he is not hostile to Latinos, but the GOP nominee can do more in terms of criticizing Obama on his use of power.

“You need to hammer the president on this now habitual abuse of power, saying he’s not going to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, not even going to go to the Supreme Court and try to stand up for the law,” Santorum said. “So you’re seeing a pattern where the president has said ‘I’m going to pick and choose what laws I’m going to enforce, what laws I’m going to stand up and fight for in court.’ That is not the job of the president.”

Santorum also weighed in on the Utah Republican primary where Dan Liljenquist is fighting to unseat six-term Sen. Orrin Hatch. Santorum has backed Liljenquist in the race.

“We need a different kind of actor in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “We’ve reached the point where we need people to say ‘no’ and have the backbone to say I’m not going to less of a bad thing anymore. We are going to start doing good things instead of compromise doing less bad.”