Fearful that Santorum might do better than expected in some upcoming primaries, the Romney campaign is sending out surrogates to attack the former senator's conservative credentials. The thing is, though... they're attacking him for trying to fund things that sound really nice and pleasant. And fluffy. The Huffington Post reports that Romney supporter Tim Pawlenty participated in a conference call today.

Pawlenty said on the call that Santorum has "held himself out as the perfect or near perfect conservative, when in fact that's not his record."

The Romney campaign highlighted Santorum's work to procure $500,000 in taxpayer funds for a polar bear exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo, as well as money for parking garages and "passenger comfort stations" at transit centers.

So, polar bears and comfortable seats. That's what Romney's campaign is attacking Santorum for. These are probably the first two appealing things many people have ever heard about Santorum's record. Could Romney really not find a more universally unlikable earmark to nail him on? Surely there had to be a yes vote for bill funding slug research or something like that they could have gone after. But, polar bears? According to Coca-Cola commercials, they are America's favorite bear. And as for "passenger comfort stations"... that literally has the word "comfort" in it. It sounds amazing. If the only two things Santorum was running on were polar bear exhibits and places to sit when you're waiting for a train, he would probably be way more popular. In fairness, this is an attack meant to appeal to Republican voters and not liberal-elite Gakwer readers and writers who take trains to see polar bear exhibits. But, this still seems like a ineffective strategy.

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that "comfort stations" refer to bathrooms, which are even BETTER than comfortable seats when it comes to things like train stations. Polar bears and bathrooms. Santorum '12.

[Image via AP]