The Hill News

Republican presidential candidate former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) would support any member of the GOP presidential field that won the 2012 nomination but Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) might give him some 'indigestion.'

"I'd support anybody in the Republican field, I mean Ron Paul would give me a little indigestion, I'd have to take some antacids on foreign policy but other than that â€"no, look they're far superior in many other ways than this president," Santorum said Sunday to Bob Scheiffer on CBS's Face the Nation. "But there's a better candidate out int he field Bob and you're talking to him this morning."

Santorum also said that businessman Herman Cain, who has taken the lead in a number of GOP presidential primary polls, is a serious candidate.

"Certainly, Herman Cain is for real and Herman has done a good job at communicating a message but that message now is being looked at carefully and I think Herman's being looked at carefully," Santoru! m said.

But Santorum jabbed Cain's proposal to impose a national 9 percent sales tax as part of Cain's 9-9-9 plan.

"And if you look at his record as a conservative, as I said this week â€"I mean he supported the Wall Street bailout," Santorum said. "If you want to look at the Tea Party, the Tea Party's â€"one of its origins was the Wall Street bailout and Herman supported the Wall Street bailout. I mean someone who wants to impose a national sales tax. I haven't seen one conservative say 'gee, this is a great idea to impose a national sales tax.' Even those who said that originally say, you know, that's not a great idea."