Evan Vucci / AP

Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, center, followed by his wife Susan, arrives at Alexandria General District Court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday, Jan. 4.

Idaho Republican Sen. Michael Crapo will lose his license for a year after pleading guilty Friday to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge in a Virginia court. 

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of failing to obey a traffic signal.

After the hearing, Crapo gave a statement outside the Alexandria City courthouse apologizing for his actions. The senator said he had been drinking vodka and tonic at home on the night of the offense, became restless, couldn't sleep and went out for a drive.

His Dec. 23 arrest stunned colleagues and constituents alike, not only because of his squeaky-clean image but also because he's Mormon and had said he didn’t

Crapo said the night of his arrest was the first time he had ever driven under the influence, but that he has, in the last year or so, imbibed

"As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I have endeavored all my life to be an outstanding member,” Crapo said. "I will carry through on appropriate measures for forgiveness and repentance in my church." 

He had been driving for about 30 minutes when he realized he was in no condition to drive and started to return home, he said. It was then that he ran a red light and was pulled over. 

"I am grateful, truly grateful, that no one was injured," Crapo said.

The senator was stopped after a patrol officer saw his vehicle go through a red light. After failing field sobriety tests, he was arrested and “taken into custody without incident,” according to Alexandria police. He registered a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, police said.

After his plea, Crapo received a $250 fine and a 12-month suspension of his driver's license. He will also be required to complete an alcohol safety program. As long as he remains on good behavior, he will not have to serve a 180-day suspended jail sentence. 

"There was no refusal (to take sobriety tests), no accident, no injuries," Alexandria Police spokesman Jody Donaldson told The Associated Press at the time of Crapo's arrest.

Crapo has served in the Senate since 1998, where he has built a reputation as a staunch social and fiscal conservative. He is currently in his third term and won't have to run again until 2016.

Crapo said he felt like he owed people a full explanation of his behavior and took numerous questions outside the courthouse. 

He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho, and has five children with his wife, Susan.

NBC's Frank Thorp and The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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Updated at 4:44 p.m. ET: President Barack Obama on Wednesday spiritedly defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over her response to the September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, assailing Republican criticism of her as "outrageous."

At his first news conference since winning re-election, the president said Rice has done “exemplary work” and accused GOP critics of trying to “besmirch” her reputation.

“I don’t think there’s any debate in this country that when you have four Americans killed, that’s a problem, and we’ve got to get to the bottom of it and there needs to be accountability. We’ve got to bring those who carried it out to justice. They won’t get any debate from me on that,” Obama said sternly.

“But when they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me.”

Two of Rice’s main GOP critics refused to back down.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said shortly after Obama’s news conference that he had “no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.” Sen. John McCain added: "We owe the American people and the families of the murdered Americans a full and complete explanation, which for two months the President has failed to deliver.”

Bebeto Matthews / AP file

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice speaks during a meeting on Syria in the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 30.

Rice has been mentioned as a possible successor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has said she will not continue to serve in Obama's second term beginning in January.

Senior Republican senators vowed earlier on Wednesday to block any future promotion of Rice, questioning her initial description of the Sept. 11 violence on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as a spontaneous outburst rather than a planned attack as unfathomable. Killed in the violence were U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials.

“My judgment at this time is that four Americans were killed, and the information that our U.N. ambassador conveyed was clearly false," McCain, R-Ariz., the top GOP senator on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. "There was overwhelming evidence that it was completely false. And she should have known what the situation and circumstances were and not tell the world on all Sunday morning talk shows.” 

Graham, of South Carolina, supported that stance at the same news conference, saying of Rice, "I don't trust her. And the reason I don't trust her is because I think she knew better, and if she didn't know better, she shouldn't be the voice of America.”

The two lawmakers along with Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire are pressing for a special, Watergate-style select Senate committee to investigate the Benghazi attack. They complained that separate inquiries by various Senate panels will fail to get to the bottom of the deadly incident.

Rice has been the focal point of accusations that the Obama administration misled the public about the nature of the Benghazi attack. Five days after the attack, she appeared on several news talk programs and said the attack stemmed from outrage in the Arab world over an anti-Muslim video, not an act of terrorism. The White House later corrected that claim.

Obama wouldn’t comment on whether he’d nominate Rice to replace Clinton on his Cabinet. But he said of Rice: “She has done exemplary work.”

“She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence (on Benghazi) that had been provided to her. If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me – and I’m happy to have that discussion with them," he said animatedly.

“But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous.”

Shortly after the president’s remarks, Graham issued the following statement:

“Mr. President, don’t think for one minute I don’t hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi.  I think you failed as Commander in Chief before, during, and after the attack. 

We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. Given what I know now, I have no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.”

McCain said initial Obama administration statements the the Benghazi attack was triggered by a spontaneous demonstration and a hateful video “clearly did not comport with the facts on the ground.“

In a statement issued after Obama’s news conference, McCain repeated his call for a select committee to be appointed “to obtain a full and complete accounting which would be credible with the American people."

Not all Republican senators agree with the the need for a special select committee.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she did not “see the benefit” of such an approach, noting the Homeland Security Committee has governmentwide jurisdiction and “a history of producing comprehensive bipartisan reports.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn, said assigning the matter to a select committee at this point would be “premature.”

David Petraeus, who stepped down as CIA director last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair, has agreed to testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack. He'll go before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday and the House committee on Friday.

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that he would like to hear from Petraeus but has yet to formally request a meeting with him.

NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell and NBC News Associate Producer Catherine Chomiak contributed to this report.

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Updated 5:20 p.m. ET -- The biggest corporate contributor in the 2012 election so far doesn’t appear to make anything — other than very large contributions to a conservative super PAC.

Specialty Group Inc., of Knoxville, Tenn., donated nearly $5.3 million between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11 to FreedomWorks for America, which is affiliated with former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

FreedomWorks’ super PAC has spent more than $19 million on political advertising, including $1.7 million on Oct. 29 opposing Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat running for Congress in Illinois against Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh, a first-term incumbent.

The buy was more than four times greater than the group’s previous largest single expenditure.

Specialty was formed only a month ago. Its “principal office” is a private home in Knoxville. It has no website. And the only name associated with it is that of its registered agent, William S. Rose Jr., a lawyer whose phone number, listed in a legal directory, is disconnected.

Rose released a press release Monday saying the company was created to "buy, sell, develop and invest in a variety of real estate ventures and investments." 

In the six-page statement, Rose said he was a "disappointed, yet staunchly patriotic, baby boomer" with concerns about the administration's handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, as well as the Department of Justice's botched "Operation Fast and Furious" gun-walking program. 

Specialty is the biggest and most mysterious corporate donor to super PACs, but it is not unique.

A new analysis by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics shows that companies have contributed roughly $75 million to super PACs in the 2012 election cycle.

Super PACs, which were created in the wake of the controversial U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, can accept donations of unlimited size from corporations, unions and individuals. They spend the funds mostly on negative advertising.

The centers’ analysis found that 85 percent of money from companies flowed to GOP-aligned groups, 11 percent went to Democratic groups and the remainder went to organizations not aligned with either party.

First Read: Full coverage on the campaign trail

Prior to Citizens United, corporate spending on candidate advertising was not allowed. The decision raised fears that massive donations from corporate treasuries would flood the election in 2012.

In fact, the largest amounts have come from wealthy businessmen. However, about 11 percent of the $660 million raised by all super PACs through mid-October has come from company treasuries — mostly privately held businesses, sometimes organized as limited partnerships or limited liability companies.

High-profile donors
Yet a few high-profile companies haven’t been afraid to jump into the partisan fray.

In mid-October, oil and gas giant Chevron donated $2.5 million to a super PAC close to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has aired a bevy of ads attacking Democratic House candidates.

Oxbow Carbon, the energy company owned by billionaire William Koch, the lesser-known brother of conservative industrialists David and Charles Koch, and Contran Corp., the business of Republican super donor Harold Simmons of Texas, have both steered significant sums to the coffers of super PACs.

Oxbow Carbon has donated $4.25 million to GOP super PACs, making it the No. 2 corporate donor to super PACs, while Contran, No. 3, has donated more than $3 million to Republican-aligned groups.

Another top corporate donor is a retirement community in central Florida known as The Villages — a Republican stronghold where Paul Ryan held his first campaign rally the day after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney named him as his running mate.

Developer H. Gary Morse created The Villages more than 50 years ago, and this election cycle, more than a dozen companies connected to Morse and The Villages have collectively steered $1.6 million to GOP super PACs. That’s in addition to the $450,000 that Morse and his wife, Renee, have donated from their personal funds.

Notably, Morse is also the Florida co-chairman of the Romney campaign, and during the Republican National Convention, Morse’s Cayman Island-flagged yacht, named “Cracker Bay,” was the site of a soiree for some of Romney’s top donors and fundraisers.

Other high-profile corporate donors include:

• The Apollo Group, a for-profit education company, which gave $75,000 to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future and another $5,000 to JAN PAC, the super PAC of Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer;
• Convenience store giant 7-Eleven, which donated $25,000 to Hoosiers for Jobs, a super PAC that supported Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., during his failed primary campaign;
• Hamburger chain White Castle, which gave $25,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund;
• Defense contractor B/E Aerospace, which gave $50,000 to Restore Our Future;
• Payday lender QC Holdings, which gave $25,000 to Restore Our Future; and
• Weaver Holdings, the parent company of the Indiana-popcorn company known for its brands “Pop Weaver” and “Trail’s End,” sold by Boy Scouts across the country, which has donated $2.4 million to American Crossroads, the super PAC founded by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie.

Only a few other Fortune 500 companies have joined Chevron, which ranks third on the elite list behind only Exxon Mobil and Walmart, in making contributions to super PACs, and none has given as much as the energy giant.

Caesar’s Entertainment Corp., for instance, ranked by Fortune at No. 288, has given $150,000 to Majority PAC, a group that is spending to help Democrats retain the majority in the U.S. Senate.

“Fortune 500 companies are the least likely to be the ones who will be out in front giving publicly,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine. “They want to have influence over elections and elected officials, but they don't want to alienate customers.”

By category, companies in the finance, insurance and real estate sector donated more than $15 million, “general business sector” firms gave about $14 million and energy sector companies contributed more than $11 million, according to the analysis.

Unions, by contrast, have donated about $60 million to super PACs, from their treasuries or political action committees.

The top union donors include the National Education Association ($9 million), the United Auto Workers ($8.6 million) and the AFL-CIO ($6.4 million). All of these groups have spent heavily on Democratic candidates.

Money 'hiding in plain sight'
Additional corporate money may be flowing through politically active nonprofits that don’t disclose their funders.

“I strongly suspect that most of the corporate money is hiding in plain sight in trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at the Stetson University College of Law.

For its part, the Chamber — which collects dues from companies such as Aetna, Chevron, Dow Chemical and Microsoft — has reported spending more than $35 million on political ads, which have overwhelmingly favored Republican politicians.

Facts about Specialty Group Inc. are scant.

Records filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office show it registered on Sept. 26, listing 61-year-old attorney William S. Rose, Jr., as its agent. Rose’s $634,000 home — about a 30-minute drive from downtown Knoxville — is listed as its “principal office.”

Yet the company’s money has made a huge impact.

After the cash infusion from Specialty, FreedomWorks produced numerous advertisements, including one that blasts Duckworth as a crony of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison following a corruption scandal.

Duckworth is a double amputee and Iraq War veteran. She headed Illinois’ Department of Veteran Affairs and later served in President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

FreedomWorks’ new ad features grainy footage of Duckworth and audio of her saying, “Gov. Blagojevich has charged me with the mission of taking care of my buddies, and that is what I’m doing.” But it leaves out the fact that when she said “buddies,” she was referring to other veterans and members of the military.

FreedomWorks for America treasurer and legal counsel Ryan Hecker says the organization only supports candidates who are “ethically right.”

Anton Becker, Duckworth's campaign press secretary, says it’s conservative outside groups who are peddling "lies."

When asked for details about Specialty Group and the source of its contributions, Hecker expressed ignorance, and doubted that voters care about where the money came from.

“We are in compliance with the law, and we are doing what we can to report to the Federal Election Commission,” he said. “If there’s an issue with Specialty, it’s their issue. It’s not our issue.”

Andrea Fuller of the Center for Public Integrity contributed to this report.

This story is a collaboration between the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Responsive Politics. For up-to-date news on outside spending in the 2012 election, follow our Source2012 Tumblr and the hashtag #Source2012 on Twitter.

More from Open Channel:

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Updated at 3:56 p.m. ET: The chairman of the Rutland County, Vt., Republican Committee on Tuesday admitted to posting comments on Facebook that he said were meant to be satirical but which Democrats labeled “racist” and “appalling.”

In a statement issued to the local newspaper, the Rutland Herald, Rob Towle said he took full responsibility for the post, which has since been taken down along with the entire Rutland County GOP Facebook page.

Towle called his post “stupid and insensitive” and said he was “truly sorry.”

His statement continued:

"It was a case of bad judgement and anyone that knows me, knows that the post does not reflect my personal values, nor does it in any way reflect the values or beliefs of any GOP official, Candidate, GOP worker, or any person that I am friends with or associate with. At no time was any person other than myself involved with this post and I wanted to make sure people understand I take full responsibility.

In writing this statement (with a heavy heart and great sorrow), I hope this message will reach those offended and will take this apology for face value and find it in their hearts to forgive."

The post was spotted on Sunday by the Vermont political blog Green Mountain Daily. It read:

“Just wanted to let you know - today I received my 2012 Social Security Stimulus Package. It contained two tomato seeds, cornbread mix, a prayer rug, a machine to blow smoke up my butt, 2 discount coupons to KFC, an "Obama Hope & Change" bumper sticker, and a "Blame it on Bush" poster for the front yard. The directions were in Spanish. Watch for yours soon.”

Green Mountain Daily also pointed to three comments written by the Rutland County GOP in response to the post. One read “Comedy is usually based in reality ... call it racist if you must ... not too far off from the truth (I didn’t write this one but it IS funny and scary at the same time).”

By Monday, the post was deleted and Towle issued a statement saying the post was meant to be "satirical" and intended to "show the author's frustration at the current economic situation that he/she finds themselves in."

"I realize now that there are those that were deeply offended and for that I am very saddened and I will make sure that our editoral process will result in posts to our pages that reflect the spirit of good natured political discussions. My hope is that we can get back to the critical dialog necessary to move Vermont and the US back towards economic prosperity.”

 On Tuesday, the entire Rutland County GOP Facebook page was taken offline.

Towle wouldn’t comment to NBC News on Tuesday beyond what he wrote in the letter to the Herald.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

Vermont Democratic Party Chair Jake Perkinson called the original post discriminatory, noting it came the same week that Republican Gov. Paul LePage of Maine compared the IRS to the Gestapo. 

“For the second time in a week, Vermont Republican Party Chair Lindley is continuing to sit by and allow his candidates and county chairs to align with discriminatory remarks instead of discussing a real plan for strengthening Vermont’s middle class and economic future,” Perkinson said in a statement Monday.

“Comparing the 2012 Social Security Stimulus Package to racist rhetoric is appalling. Deleting the post from the internet is not enough, both the Rutland County Republicans and Lindley should apologize for vile comments that only move Vermont backwards.”

In a follow-up email to NBC News on Tuesday, Perkinson described Towle's Monday comments as “sophomoric and insincere.”

“Instead of apologizing, he attempts to shift the blame for his actions to 'Democrats' for being offended by his racist post. Mr. Towle should take full responsibility for his words and make a meaningful apology.”

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will call on Monday for a one-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000 a year, according to a White House official, seeking to spare the economy the impact of taxes going up on January 1.

Obama, a Democrat, will make the request in a statement at the White House, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Republicans in Congress, however, are unlikely to be swayed, as they have consistently argued that the Bush tax cuts should be extended for everyone.

 Obama has made what he calls "tax fairness" a key feature of his campaign for re-election on November 6, repeatedly urging Congress to make the tax cuts permanent for families making less than $250,000 a year.

The tax cuts enacted by Obama's Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, will expire on January 1 without congressional action, part of a so-called fiscal cliff that potentially could hit the U.S. economy alongside deep automatic spending cuts.

Analysts warn the impact of rising taxes and lower federal spending could tip the economy back into recession.

The New York Times said Obama would announce the tax cut extension in the Rose Garden on Monday, citing un-named senior administration officials.

It reported that the proposal would mean another fight between the White House and Republicans, and could also “put him at odds with Democratic leaders like Representative Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who have advocated extending the cuts for everyone who earns up to $1 million”.

Its report said the announcement comes “as both parties and their presidential candidates head into the rest of the summer trying to seize the upper hand in a campaign that has been closely matched and stubbornly static”.

Representative Tom Price, a member of the House Republican leadership, said earlier on the "Fox News Sunday" program that the House would pass legislation before the end of July to preserve the Bush tax cuts for another year.

Republicans control the House of Representatives and Obama's fellow Democrats control the Senate.

Representative Xavier Becerra, a member of the House Democratic leadership, said Democrats would not support any measure that did not address the nation's fiscal challenges on a long-term basis.

"Those are bills to nowhere," Becerra said on "Fox News Sunday," referring to the House Republicans' legislation to extend the Bush tax cuts. 

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

About 20 percent of initial online reaction expressed a clear opinion about Rick Santorum's decision to suspend his campaign, with most of it approving.

Click for larger image

Early reaction among supporters and opponents alike approved of Rick Santorum's withdrawal from the Republican presidential race Tuesday, according to msnbc.com's computer-assisted analysis of online reaction.

M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania whose strong showing among conservatives in primaries and caucuses surprised many observers, suspended his campaign Tuesday amid concerns for the health of his daughter Bella, who was hospitalized for complications from the chromosomal disorder Trisomy 18.

Santorum suspends presidential campaign

Reaction was swift on social media and political forums. Most of the online discussion simply passed along the news or tried to dispassionately assess the effect on the campaign, according to msnbc.com's analysis of more than 14,500 posts on Twitter, Facebook and forums Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Among those commenters, the consensus was that Santorum's decision cleared the way for the nomination of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as summarized by James Kust, a sportswriter in Eau Claire, Wis.:

Twitter.com

But about 20 percent did express clear opinions about Santorum's decision, with those welcoming the news outpacing those expressing disappointment by a 9-to-1 ratio through early Tuesday evening. While many people applauded Santorum for putting his family first, others rejoiced that he was leaving the race.

(The analysis uses a tool called ForSight, a natural-language data platform developed by Crimson Hexagon Inc., which is used by many media and research organizations, including the Pew Research Center and ESPN, to gauge public opinion in new media.)

For supporters of Santorum, who ran a strongly conservative campaign opposing same-sex marriage and abortion, the announcement reinforced what attracted them to him in the first place.

One of those was Kelly Clinger of Atlanta, a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion-rights group Silent No More Awareness Campaign:

Twitter.com

Others who may not have supported Santorum still sent him good wishes for his daughter, like Eric Johnson, a student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia:

Twitter.com

But as you would expect for a candidate whose clear-cut positions drew sharp divisions among voters, much of the reaction was political, and most of that was anti-Santorum, including this tweet from Davis Allen, a student at Arizona State University:

Twitter.com

On the political discussion group PeoplesPoliticsIII, a frequent commenter using the name Noserose criticized Santorum for his public expressions of faith:

peoplespoliticsiii.yuku.com

A similar sentiment came from Waymon Hudson, a freelance writer from Chicago, who said on Facebook:

Facebook.com

And for some, Santorum's withdrawal makes the campaign "much less amusing now," as Wes Platt, an online game writer and designer from Durham, N.C., tweeted.

That reaction was summarized by Elliott Lerner, a student at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who moonlights occasionally as a standup comic:

Twitter.com

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Nati Harnik / AP

Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks with workers at a meat plant Thursday in South Sioux City, Neb.

Texas taxpayers spent $3.6 million paying for Gov. Rick Perry's state-provided security as he flew around the country during his brief Republican presidential campaign, the state said Friday — money that Democrats want him to pay back.

The Texas Department of Public Safety disclosed that it spent $1.8 million on food, fuel, hotels and other expenses and another $1.8 million on overtime guarding Perry during his travels from August through January.

Most of that travel was out of state as Perry sought the Republican nomination and carried out his duties as head of the Republican Governors Association.

M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Texas Democrats have called on Perry to pay back the money from his campaign war chest. But Perry has refused, citing the example of Gov. George W. Bush, whose 2000 campaign also used state-provided security.

Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Perry, said Friday in a statement: "Governor Perry is governor of Texas no matter where he travels, and it is unfortunate we live in a world where security is a top concern, but that is the reality. Providing security detail for the governor's family is a customary policy that dates back numerous administrations."

It's likely that some taxpayers won't be satisfied with that answer, because Bush's campaign cost the state on average half of what Perry's cost, even when the figures are adjusted for inflation.

Perry's bill works out to an average of $22,500 a day for his out-of-state political activities during the 160 days he was in the presidential race.  

Before the Secret Service took over Bush's security at the end of March 2000, the Texas Department of Public Safety spent $3.9 on Bush's out-of-state security, state records show. 

When you run that through the Commerce Department's cost of living inflation adjustment formula, Bush's bill was about $5.25 million in today's money. But that was spread over 455 days from Jan. 1, 1999, to March 31, 2000 — an average of only $11,428 a day.

The Houston Chronicle reported that while Perry's campaign generally paid for his personal travel expenses, his security detail is paid through the state gasoline tax and vehicle registration fees.

"One way to protect taxpayers' money is by not spending it unnecessarily," Texas House Democratic leader Jessica Farrar said in a letter to Perry in January, when the bill was still only $2.6 million, NBC station KXAN of Austin reported at the time. "If someone discovers tax dollars have been spent unnecessarily, it should be reimbursed either to general revenue or directly to taxpayers."

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At the risk of annoying supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who believe — and argue fervently — that the mainstream news media don't pay attention to their candidate, it must be noted that Twitter and Facebook don't, either.

Accusations that news organizations are ignoring Paul's presidential campaign are an organizing principle of his supporters, who take to Facebook and Twitter to complain that the only reason Paul isn't leading is a "media blackout."

Every day, hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of comments like this appear:

Twitter.com

M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, Paul's rally was covered by the major St. Louis media (here, here and here, for example), but never mind that — perception matters in politics. And the perception in some quarters is that the media are actively trying to sink Paul's campaign.

That sentiment makes up about 10 percent of posts about Paul this year, according to msnbc.com's computer-assisted analysis of a sample of 9 million Twitter and Facebook posts that have mentioned one of the four major Republican candidates through Friday.

(The analysis uses a tool called ForSight, a data platform developed by Crimson Hexagon Inc., which is used by many media and research organizations to gauge public opinion in new media, among them the Pew Research Center and ESPN. The results aren't a scientific reflection of national opinion. Instead, they're a broad look at what is being said by Americans who follow politics and are active on Facebook, Twitter or both.)

Since the beginning of the year, Paul and his campaign have been mentioned about 1.1 million times on Twitter or Facebook:

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click to enlarge
The top line quantifies total mentions of Ron Paul on Twitter and Facebook since Jan. 1. The shaded blue are counts those that specifically take a position on him.

Here's the problem: Over the same time, more than 3.7 million posts have mentioned former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney:

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click to enlarge

More than 2.2 million have mentioned former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia:

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click to enlarge

And more than 1.9 million have mentioned former Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania:

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click to enlarge

Here's an especially telling comparison, charting posts that state an actual opinion about one of the four candidates since Jan. 1. Paul is the yellow line at the bottom, often clocking in at fewer than 5,000 opinions a day:

Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click to enlarge

However much his partisans may complain, it's not just the media that are ignoring Ron Paul.

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Rick Santorum is coming under much closer — and more skeptical — scrutiny since he jumped to the top of Republican presidential polls this month, according to a computer-assisted analysis of social media data.

For the first time, politically engaged users of Twitter and Facebook are buzzing about Santorum more than about any other Republican candidate.

M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, swept Republican voting in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado on Feb. 7. Although all three contests were essentially beauty contests, with little official impact on the delegate count, Santorum's victories revived his campaign.

Before Feb. 7, Santorum was generally running third behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia in most major national polls. Following those contests, he soared to the top of the major national polls, and he has remained there since.

Santorum's rise has been mirrored on social media, according to msnbc.com's analysis of nearly 2.2 million posts on Twitter and Facebook this month. And as the spotlight has focused on him, it has drawn opponents of his sharp-edged positions out of the shadows.  

msnbc.com research/M. Alex Johnson; Crimson Hexagon Inc.

Click the image for the full-size chart.

Comparison of total numbers of opinions expressed about the Republican candidates the week before the Feb. 7 contests and this week. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is represented by the purple line. Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania is represented by the orange line.

The analysis examined posts through Thursday about the four remaining major Republican candidates, filtering out straight news reports and neutral posts, such as tweets noting that a candidate would be making a campaign appearance. The resulting sample was 1.2 million tweets and Facebook posts that expressed clear support for or opposition to one of them.

In the week leading up to the Feb. 7 contests, those Facebook and Twitter users preferred to talk about Romney by a ratio of more than 6 to 1 over Santorum. 

Beginning Feb. 8, however, Santorum has been the No. 1 topic of conversation. This week, more than two-fifths of every post expressing an opinion — 41 percent — were about Santorum, compared to 32 percent for Romney, 15 percent for Gingrich and 12 percent for Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

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(The analysis uses a tool called ForSight, a data platform developed by Crimson Hexagon Inc., which is used by many media and research organizations to gauge public opinion in new media, among them the Pew Research Center and ESPN. The results aren't a scientific reflection of national opinion. Instead, they're a broad look at what is being said by Americans who follow politics and are active on Facebook, Twitter or both.) 

Nonpartisan research indicates that Republicans and Democrats use social networking sites in roughly equal proportions. The demographics have gradually been trending older and more conservative as the sites are adopted by a larger proportion of the American public, studies indicate.

Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project: Social Media and the 2010 Election (.pdf)

The msnbc.com analysis suggests that while people are much more enthusiastic about talking about Santorum, they're not any more enthusiastic about the man himself. On Feb. 7, before results of the three contests were known, 42 percent of Santorum's comments were positive to 58 percent negative; Thursday, after a debate Wednesday night in Mesa, Ariz., where Santorum came under sustained attack from Romney and Paul, the breakdown was 38 percent to 62 percent.

Consistently, the largest driver of sentiment about Santorum is his strong stance against same-sex marriage, making up 18 percent of all opinions expressed about him and 28 percent of all negative sentiment this week — proportions that have remained remarkably consistent since June, when msnbc.com began collecting data.

In a Facebook post typical of the anti-Santorum commentary, Jay A. Small of Vancouver, Wash., wrote this week:

From Rick Santorum's website: "Marriage is, and has always been through human history, a union of a man and woman – and for a reason. These unions are special because they are the ones we all depend on to make new life and to connect those new lives to their mom and dad." 

So, Mr. Santorum, your religion's typical intolerance must then also stand for banning marriage between couples who do not choose, or are not able to procreate.

First Read: Santorum hits on religious tones in speech

But other issues are now emerging around which significant opposition is crystallizing. The sentiment that Santorum is "too conservative," particularly in the prominence of his religious views — previously just one of several scattered notions — has broken into double digits this month, rising to 13 percent of all commentary and 20 percent of all negative opinion, such as this tweet by an Alaskan woman who describes herself as a Christian "pro-life supporter":

Twitter.com

The picture is different for Romney, who (at least according to msnbc.com's analysis) has yet to give voters a clear reason to vote for or against him. That suggests his supporters could be swayed by other candidates — or that he still could galvanize support with clearly articulated positions.

'Most electable'?
In fact, the No. 1 reason social media commentators give for supporting Romney — both this week and going all the way back to June — is their belief that he is the "most electable" Republican in the race, a sentiment that has driven 36 percent of all positive opinions this week:

Twitter.com

A quarter cite Romney's competence or leadership; no other issue even makes it into double digits.

Likewise, opposition to Romney is widely scattered. A quarter of those expressing negative opinions this week cited his wealth, with many suggesting that he is out of touch with the majority of Americans, as in this tweet from Michaele Swiderski, a Tennessee woman who describes herself as a Jesus-loving conservative:

Twitter.com

But 15 percent also expressed concern over his Mormon faith, another 15 percent thought he was too closely tied to corporate interests, and 14 percent pinned the RINO label on him — that is, "Republican In Name Only," or not truly conservative.

Even in Michigan — his native state, which holds an important primary Tuesday — the single most mentioned word in social media posts about Romney this week (after his own name) isn't any political issue or position.

It's "Santorum."

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