Rick Santorum, Son of Civil Servants

Addressing attendees at the American Federation of Government Employees’ annual legislative conference last week, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, delivered an unscripted aside attacking GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Brown blasted the former Pennsylvania senator’s comments about the “indoctrination” of American college students, drawing enthusiastic audience applause.

Brown read aloud from a post by his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, on her Facebook page. In the post, she wrote, “Mr. Santorum, you say President Obama is a ‘snob’ for wanting every kid in American to attend college, that ‘he wants to remake [them] in his image.’ You were lucky enough to earn three college degrees…”

Brown then interrupted his reading to address the audience, saying, “including at three state universities, right? Paid by taxpayers.”

The audience applause began. Brown continued: “And Rick Santorum’s parents worked for the VA -- paid by taxpayers. And Rick Santorum got government health care, for like, his whole life.”