Santorum ad takes aim at Cruz

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is taking the gloves off against Ted Cruz in a new video touting his achievements in the Senate and hitting the Texas senator for his apparent penchant for reading children's books to score political points, featuring Cruz's wife and daughters in a brief clip of his opponent's own ad.

"Ted Cruz is wonderful at reading children’s fairy tales on the Senate floor," the spot titled, appropriately, "Fairy Tales" begins, showing Cruz reading Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" during a filibuster on the Senate floor in 2013.


It then contrasts Cruz's conduct in the Senate with that of Santorum, who served from 1995 to 2007.

"Rick Santorum spent his time in the Senate a little differently," the narrator says. "Eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, helping to modernize today’s Army to better be prepared for today’s threats. Santorum also wrote and passed tough laws putting harsh sanctions on Iran."

The one-minute ad then calls Santorum "a leader taking on radical Islam" for "more than a decade," playing a clip of the former senator at the December debate in Las Vegas remarking, "Not all Muslims are jihadists, and no one could say that. But the reality is, all jihadists are Muslims."

"You want someone to read one hell of a bedtime story? Ted Cruz is your guy," the narrator continues, over video of Cruz's ad aired during the Dec. 19 episode of "Saturday Night Live" in which he read parodies of Dr. Seuss books like "How Obamacare Stole Christmas" seated on a couch with his wife Heidi and two young daughters. Cruz's decision to use his daughters in that ad elicited a Washington Post cartoon depicting Cruz as an organ grinder and his daughters as dutiful monkeys. The Post retracted the cartoon hours after publication.

"If you want to protect America and defeat ISIS, Rick Santorum’s your president. Because serious times needs serious people," the spot concludes.The ad will run on broadcast, cable and digital platforms in Iowa, Santorum's campaign said.