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Rick Santorum describes GOP as leaderless and in state of 'mess and confusion'

Rick Santorum, the man who thinks the television show "Will and Grace" is to blame for the recent influx of same-sex marriage legislation, said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did the Republican party no favors during the federal government shutdown.

Rick Santorum, the man who thinks the television show "Will and Grace" is to blame for the recent influx of same-sex marriage legislation, believes U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did the Republican party no favors during the federal government shutdown.

Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and Republican presidential candidate, said Sunday that Cruz, in his attempt to gut President Barack Obama's health care law, "did more harm" than good.

"I think it was not his objective," Santorum said during an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press. "I think his objective was a laudable one. I think he didn't do a very good job in planning it out. I mean, there's one thing to have a goal, and another thing to have a plan to get you to that goal, and he didn't figure that out."

When host David Gregory asked Santorum to what extent he thought Cruz served as the face of the current conservative movement, Santorum replied that "there isn't a leader in the Republican party right now."

"That's part of the problem," he said. "That's part of the mess and the confusion. But that's always the way it is with a party out of power. You have lots of different faces. And those faces, as we've seen, they come and they go."

It seems, of late, Santorum's face isn't going anywhere, and neither is his often inflammatory rhetoric.

Santorum, who earlier this year was named CEO of Christian film company Echolight Studios, raised eyebrows last week when he suggested the film industry was controlled by Satan while promoting his upcoming Christmas movie on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

"This is a tough business, this is something that we're stepping out, and the Devil for a long, long time has had this, these screens, for his playground, and he isn't going to give it up easily," Santorum said.

While speaking last month at the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference, Santorum claimed there was no attempt to change the country's legal definition of marriage for 30 years, "and then a television show came on the air called 'Will and Grace.'"

"And look at it from that point on!" he proclaimed.

Santorum, who came in second to Mitt Romney during the 2012 GOP presidential primary, has not announced whether he plans to take another crack at the nation's highest office in 2016.