Santorum: Mitt Romney Bought CPAC

Fresh off his loss to Mitt Romney at CPAC, Rick Santorum hit the talk shows this morning, and he's downplaying the victory, reports Politico: "You have to talk to the Romney campaign and how many tickets they bought—we've heard all sorts of things," Santorum told CNN. "Ron Paul has won those (straw polls) because he trucks in a lot of people, pays for their ticket, and they come in and vote. I don't try to rig straw polls." Elsewhere on the Sunday dial, as per Politico:

• Santorum on his chances: "I think we can do well (in Michigan). I think we can do reasonably well in Arizona, and really make this a two-person race."
• Sarah Palin on Romney: He's "a great candidate," but "his idea of conservatism is evolving, and I base this on a pretty moderate past that he has had, even in some cases a liberal past. Now that’s a problem. He’s still in the 30 percentile mark ... because we are not convinced."
• Obama chief of staff Jack Lew on the birth control ruckus: The Friday "accommodation" is as far as the White House will go. "There are others who don't have the same objective, they will have to speak for themselves, (but) this is our plan."
• Ron Paul on 'severe conservative' Romney: "That was the first time I’ve heard that definition, so I guess Mitt will have to tell us exactly what it means. Obviously, he means he’s a serious conservative, and he was trying to defend himself, or portray himself as such, but I don’t know exactly what he was meaning by that."

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)