Rick bags Bayou

RICK SANTORUM cruised to victory in the Louisiana GOP primary Saturday night, giving his flagging campaign a boost as front-runner Mitt Romney seeks to close out the race.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Santorum beat Romney by a substantial 49% to 27% margin.

The Associated Press declared Santorum the victor shortly after the polls closed at 9 p.m.

Despite the win, Santorum faces long odds to overtake Romney in securing the 1,144 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination — and the right to take on President Obama this fall.

With the Louisiana results, where 20 delegates were at stake, Romney leads the overall race for delegates with 568, followed by San- torum with 273, Newt Gingrich with 135 and Ron Paul with 50.

Santorum has been taking fire from Team Romney and the Republican establishment for suggesting last week that the nation may be better off with President Obama for another four years than “taking a risk on the Etch A Sketch candidate.”

Santorum was pouncing on a Romney aide’s flubbed statement that the former Massachusetts governor’s conservative-leaning stances in the GOP primary would change “almost like an Etch A Sketch” in the general election against Obama.

The incoming fire Santorum drew in the aftermath of his riff had him on the defensive heading into Saturday’s primary.

“I’ve always said I would never vote for Barack Obama. Are you kidding me?” he told Fox News. “What do you think I’m doing this for? Do you think because I like Barack Obama?” A Romney spokesman told Time.com that “Santorum is trying to fool people into believing he didn’t say what he actually said. Fortunately, voters are smart enough to see through his dishonesty.”

A Santorum win over Romney in the Deep South would be another reminder that the frontrunner has been unable to woo the party’s conservative wing. Romney previously lost South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama while rolling to wins in the more moderate Midwest and Northeast, plus as crucial victory in Florida.