The three Republican responses to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech show the frustration members of the party have with Washington, D.C., says former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state presented the official Republican response Tuesday night. But the tea party wing of the party has been giving its own responses in recent years, and
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah took on that duty this year. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky also gave his own response.
"They looked like they were coming from all over the place,"
Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto said Wednesday as he interviewed Santorum.
"She did a horrible job. You know it," Cavuto said. "She's a wonderful person, but it was horrible."
"Look, I don't know anybody who does those well," Santorum diplomatically responded, noting that it is always hard to follow the president, who has a large congressional audience responding with multiple instances of applause.
"I'm not defending the three voices out there," Santorum said. "Obviously, I didn't go out there and do it because I didn't think it was the appropriate thing to do. But it does demonstrate the frustration some people have with how things are going in Washington, D.C., overall, not in the Republican Party in particular."
Former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey didn't like the multiple responses, telling Cavuto on Fox Business Network on Tuesday that it was a "serious tactical error, and one that the tea party repeatedly makes."
Other Republicans panned McMorris Rodgers' effort, with conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeting:
Some on Twitter disliked the GOP response so much that they suggested conservative writer Mark Steyn be tapped for future responses.
The acerbic Steyn is a tough critic of Obama, and Democrats in general. He isn't a politician, and not even a U.S. citizen, but his pointed criticism of Republican leadership makes him an unlikely pick by those leaders.
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