HEY, COOCH -- IS RICK SANTORUM JUST USING YOU TO PLUG HIS MOVIE?

You may have seen this story a couple of days ago:

Rick Santorum is signing up volunteers for a "strikeforce" to help Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in his bid to become governor of Virginia.

Santorum's PAC, Patriot Voices, is recruiting supporters to go door to door Nov. 1-3 in Virginia to plug the Republican candidate for governor on its website....

Right Wing Watch noted that Santorum is asking people to "sign up" at his site. Could there possibly be an ulterior motive here (besides the usually mercenary one, since the Rickster is also asking for donations)?

Gosh, I think there is. Right Wing Watch tells us this today:

Rick Santorum is asking you to do your part to free movie theatres from the Devil's clutches by purchasing tickets to his upcoming movie, The Christmas Candle. He appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network last week to plug the new movie of his film company EchoLight Studios....

Yup, he just so happens to be trolling for e-mail addresses -- all ostensibly in the interest of getting Ken Cuccinelli elected -- when the film studio for which he's now the CEO has a movie coming out two and a half weeks after Election Day. Ka-ching!

And, as Right Wing Watch notes, since becoming CEO of EchoLight, Santorum has been sued by a couple of EchoLight executives he fired. So I guess his God-bothering little business venture needs some customers. I'm not sure where a Cuccinelli victory places on his list of priorities.