Santorum, seriously?

Republican hopeful Rick Santorum swept three electoral contests on Wednesday, capturing caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and a primary in Missouri.

The wins breathed new life into Santorum’s campaign, which had struggled after his early, narrow victory in Iowa. It was also a setback for frontrunner Mitt Romney who, despite having tons of cash and perfectly robotic hair, has so far failed to ignite his party’s conservative base.

Stoking the extreme fringe hasn’t been a problem for Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator has compared gay sex to bestiality and this week mused nostalgically about the good old days of back alley abortions.

Under the archaic rules of the U.S. presidential system, none of Tuesday’s votes were binding. Colorado and Minnesota will formally pick their delegates at a later date, while Missouri was stripped of its representatives for monkeying with the primary calendar.

Still, Tuesday’s wins could go some way toward establishing Santorum as the religious right’s best hope of toppling Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has so far enjoyed that status, all but ignored Tuesday’s contests. (Politico reports that he campaigned in Ohio instead, but I like to imagine he was holed up somewhere, spitballing ideas for the lunar White House.)

For more analysis on Santorum read the insightfully foul-mouthed Charles Pierce in Esquire, the New Yorker’s John Cassidy or the Book of Revelations.