Chris Wallace was surprisingly aggressive during his 15-minute interview with Rick Santorum yesterday. I’m sure some will point to it as proof that he’s tough on Republicans. I say, not so fast. It just so happens that, as Fox’s Mike Huckabee noted this morning, Republicans are beginning to unite behind Mitt Romney and Politico reported that “High-profile Republicans are beginning to call for the curtain to fall on the brutal and brutish presidential primary.” But if Santorum does lose his insurgency this week, many may point to this devastating interview as one of the reasons.

Wallace moved in for the kill at about 3:55. “Do you really want to be campaigning on contraception in the year 2012?” he asked.

Santorum’s smile from earlier in the interview vanished. He tried to explain that it was a matter of governmental overreach into people’s faith.

But Wallace wasn’t having it. He said, “But Senator, this is more than an issue of faith or conscience, religious freedom. You say that you believe that birth control is wrong.” He played a clip of Santorum saying contraception is “not OK” but “a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to what, what, how things are supposed to be.”

A look of dismay affixed itself to Santorum’s face.

Wallace noted that the CDC reported that 99% of sexually active women between ages 15-44 have used some form of artificial birth control. “Are you saying all those women have done something wrong?” Wallace asked.

At that point, Santorum turned defensive.

Then Wallace moved on to ask Santorum why he gave only 1.76% to charity when Mitt Romney gave “almost 14%” which was almost as much as President Obama. Wallace asked, “Why so little, sir?” Even I thought that was an unfair question given that Romney is much wealthier, he belongs to a church that requires tithing (and much of his donations went to that). But Santorum also has seven children, one of whom is disabled.

Wallace also confronted Santorum on the recent dustup over his calling President Obama “a snob” for supposedly wanting “every American to go to college.” Wallace noted that Obama never said that and played a quote of what Obama actually said (that all Americans should commit to one year of higher education or vocational training or apprenticeship). Wallace then posted a quote from Santorum’s 2006 website in support of “legislative solutions” that make higher education “more accessilble and affordable.” Wallace asked, “Question: weren’t you then right where Barack Obama is now?”

You could tell from the look on his face, Santorum knew he was being sandbagged. He started fumbling and saying, “Maybe I was reading some things that, uh, you know, I’ve read some columns where, uh, - at least it was characterized that the president said we should go to four-year colleges. If I was in error in that… You say you haven’t found that, I’ve certainly read that. If it was in error, then I agree with the president that we should options for people to go to a variety of different training options for them.”

I’ve long suspected Wallace is a Romney supporter. This interview strengthened that suspicion. Unless and until Wallace goes after Romney with the same fire and enthusiasm, I’ve got to conclude this was just one more example of a Fox News host using their platform to advance their own particular GOP-based agenda.