Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is batting back at rival Rick Perry who has accused Santorum of being a “prolific earmarker.” 

Earmarks are used by members of congress to target spending for pet projects. Santorum has said he’s proud of the earmarks he directed for projects in Pennsylvania, and this afternoon in Ames, Santorum stressed that as president he would veto bills that contain earmarks.

“Look, if you look at my record and you look at what my plan is for being president, cutting $5 trillion over the next five years, there won’t be a whole lot of room for earmarking,” Santorum said.

Santorum stopped by a sports bar in Ames for a Pinstripe Bowl party and critics distributed flyers on cars in the parking lot, questioning the former senator’s anti-abortion record. Santorum suggests he’s getting more attention from his rivals because his standing in the polls has improved.

“I think we’ve got a very strong message and we’ve very effectively been able to communicate that. I’m sure the scrutiny will come,” Santorum said, laughing. “There’s no concern about that.” 

To assure rabid fans of the two major college teams in the state weren’t offended, Santorum’s mid-afternoon attendance at the Ames sports bar for an Iowa State bowl-watching party was followed by an evening appearance at sports bar in Johnston to watch the Hawkeyes play in the Insight Bowl.

A $50 million ”earmark” Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley secured in 2003 to get federal funding for a controversial Iowa project is again front and center in the closing days of an Iowa campaign.

The “EarthPark” project has never gotten off the ground and the federal money had to be returned. John McCain called it the “EarthPork” project four years ago as he crusaded against “pork barrel” projects. 

“You think that even the people of Iowa think that we need an indoor rainforest in Iowa?” McCain asked a crowd in Ankeny back in August of 2007.

EarthPark was to have been located at Lake Red Rock, near Pella. Plans included a four-acre tropical rainforest and a 60,000 gallon aquarium. 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is now ridiculing a rival’s vote for that EarthPark earmark.

Perry, the current governor of Texas, has been blasting Rick Santorum for his support of earmarks when Santorum was in congress. Perry cited Santorum’s vote for spending on a teapot museum in North Carolina and the infamous “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska as well.

“Just yesterday (Santorum) once again defended his prolific pork barrel spending,” Perry said today in Waterloo. “Why were those important enough for you to vote for?”

Perry and Santorum seem to be battling for supremacy among social conservatives, as an NBC poll released late this week shows the two in a statistical tie for third, behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Perry has been campaigning as a Washington outsider, and he’s now labeling Santorum as one of the D.C. insiders.

“He voted to raise the debt ceiling eight times while he was in the United States Senate, more than doubling the debt in this country from $4.1 trillion to $9 trillion.”

In 2006, former Congressman Jim Nussle’s support of the EarthPark project was the subject of a humorous campaign ad featuring soon-to-be-Governor Chet Culver and his running mate Patty Judge ridiculing the project as water pelted them. 

“Jim Nussle thinks it’s raining money in Washington,” Culver said, and Judge added: “Like wasting $50 million to build a rainforest in Iowa.”

That commercial made Grassley livid.

“Mother always reminded me, she always referred to some people who didn’t know enough to come in out of the rain,” Grassley said in 2006, drawing out the last word for emphasis. 

Culver and Judge, if you may recall, wore rain gear in the ad. Judge was wearing a yellow rainslicker and a matching yellow hat.

David Oman, a former chief of staff to Republican Governor Terry Branstad, was the executive director of the EarthPark project.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul is responding to critics who call his views “scary.”

“Those people who say that these ideas that I express are dangerous — it sort of baffles me a whole lot because I think big government is dangerous,” Paul said. “I think wars fought endlessly is dangerous. I think printing money and (expanding) government at will — that is what is dangerous.”

Paul made his comments before a crowd of about 200 in Le Mars this afternoon. Most of his rivals for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination have been calling Paul’s foreign policy views ”isolationist” and particularly single out his statements that Iran is not a big enough threat to warrant retaliation from the U.S. to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Paul told the crowd in Le Mars he’s calling for “positive change” on a variety of fronts.

“If want to live in a free, prosperous and a peaceful world, we have to argue the case for liberty in the American tradition,” Paul said.

Paul is leaving the Iowa campaign trail this evening and plans to return Monday for a tour of the state with his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

(Additional reporting in Le Mars by Dennis Morrice of KLEM)

Ron Paul

Bowl-watching parties, parking lot rallies and coffee-shop conversations are among the events featuring Iowans, the Republican presidential candidates and the media now traveling along to record every moment.

Mitt Romney began the day outdoors, in West Des Moines, speaking to about 500 people gathered in a Hy-Vee parking lot.

“You know the other day President Obama said, ‘You know, it could be worse.’ That was his line: ‘It could be worse.’ Can you imagine hearing that from a pessimistic president? That goes down with Marie Antoinette (who said):  ‘Let them eat cake,’” Romney said. “He’s in Hawaii right now. We’re out in the cold and the rain and the wind because we care about America. He’s just finished his 90th round of golf.”

Romney stressed his ability to reach bipartisan consensus when he served as Massachusetts governor.

“Good Democrats love America, too. I do remember, however, what Ronald Reagan said. He said, ‘It’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that what they know is wrong,’” Romney said, getting laughter. “And so we have to educate them from time to time and make that they understand how we can work together to get America back on track. I will do that.” 

Ron Paul is campaigning in northwest Iowa today. Yesterday afternoon, during a stop in Atlantic, a man in the audience raised an issue Paul has been quite out-spoken about over the years, the question of how much gold is at Fort Knox.

“Would you reveal, as president, whether there’s actually any gold there?” Mitch Henry asked. The crowd laughed and applauded.

“Yes, and if I couldn’t accomplish that then there’s big trouble in this country,” Paul said. “I may need to get some help from you.”

Paul is an advocate for returning to the so-called “gold standard” for U.S. currency and has called for an audit of The Federal Reserve to find out, in part, how much gold the U.S. has.

“There’s a lot of shenanigans (going) on,” Paul said of the Federal Reserve. “They’ll loan the goal and they’ll use it for collateral.”

Rick Santorum has been urging Iowans to “think long and hard” before they vote for Paul.

“The problem with Congressman Paul is the things that most Republicans like about him –which is his bold economic plan and his cutting the government — are the things that he has proven over a 20-year career that he has been incapable of rallying any support to do,” Santorum said in Muscatine Thursday. “He’s passed one bill in 20 years.”

Santorum has been using the word “scary” to describe Paul’s foreign policy views.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very important vote you’re casting here in Iowa — on national security there is no more important. Iowa needs to send a message that we want a candidate that is the Dennis Kucinich wing of the Democratic Party running for president under our ticket,” Santorum said in Muscatine, a reference to Ohio Congressman Kucinich who is known for his anti-war views. “We want a candidate who is in the Reagan wing of the Republican Party.”

Newt Gingrich is also hammering away at Paul.

“The biggest difference that Ron Paul and I have is over Iran. I think an Iranian nuclear weapon is a nightmare,” Gingrich told a crowd in Storm Lake and a man in the crowd said loudly, “Yes.”

Gingrich continued: “These people are religiously inspired fanatics.” 

Rick Perry started his campaign day today at a pizza joint in Waterloo called “Doughy Joey’s” and this afternoon he’s stopping at the “Fainting Goat” restaurant in Waverly. Perry has been blasting rival Rick Santorum over the projects Santorum was able to win federal money for when he was in congress. 

“When he talks about fiscal conservatism, I’m kind of left scratching my head…He is a prolific earmarker,” Perry said in Cedar Rapids Thursday. “…I love Iowa pork, but I don’t like Washington pork and that’s the problem. That Washington pork is the one that we’ve got to watch out for. It’ll give you a stomach ache that lasts for a long, long time.”

Santorum has said he is “proud” of the federal spending he was able to direct to his home state of Pennsylvania, but Santorum promises as president he would reject legislation that contains spending “earmarked” by members of congress for specific projects. 

Michele Bachmann campaigned in Sioux City early this morning, then made a stop in Early, Iowa.

“It’s time, once again, for the United States to lead and as president of the United States, I will take that challenge,” Bachmann said. 

So, what are the candidates doing New Year’s Eve?  Perry’s last public event of the day is a “meet and greet” at “The Gigglin’ Goat” in Boone at 12:45 Saturday afternoon. Gingrich will hold a tele-town hall mid-to-late Saturday afternoon, then overnight in Des Moines. Santorum will hold a rally at 5 p.m. in Ottumwa. Romney will hold a town hall meeting in Sioux City late Saturday afternoon, starting at 5:30.

Bachmann’s campaign has not released her schedule for tomorrow. Paul is exiting the state after his event in Sioux City tonight and is due back on Monday to campaign here with his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

(Additional reporting in Atlantic by Ric Hanson of KJAN; in Storm Lake by Joel Herman of KAYL; in Muscatine by Phil Roberts; in West Des Moines by Emily Boyer)