Posted on 02/11/2009 5:23:23 AM PST by Born Conservative
Pat Toomey is miffed. The former Congressman and current president of the Club for Growth came within a whisker of knocking off Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s 2004 GOP Senate primary. Now Mr. Specter is one of the GOP moderates helping President Obama enact his “stimulus” plan in the Senate. Mr. Specter’s pivot is an “amazingly squandered opportunity,” complains Mr. Toomey. “If the Republicans remained united, they could have demanded some real tax cuts. Senator Specter snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.”
So is Mr. Toomey looking for a Senate rematch in 2010 as some GOP leaders are privately urging? For now, he’s “seriously considering” a gubernatorial bid next year instead, but adds that if he ran against Mr. Specter, “I’m very confident that I would win. Senator Specter is much more vulnerable now than he was in 2004.”
Regardless of what Mr. Toomey decides to do, Pennsylvania conservatives are actively plotting to topple Mr. Specter. Chris Lilik, a longtime Toomey associate and editor of Pennsylvania’s influential conservative Web site GrassrootsPA, tells me that the 2010 primary will look vastly different than 2004’s: “For many years, the suburbs around Philadelphia in southeastern Pennsylvania were a stronghold for GOP registration, with moderate voters who identified with Senator Specter. This has changed. So many people in the southeast have crossed, registering as Democrats last year to support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, we’re going to have a situation where Senator Specter will not have those reliable votes in the southeast.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are starting to line up to take on Mr. Specter. On Monday, Philadelphia’s Joe Torsella, a former president of the National Constitution Center and current chairman of Pennsylvania’s Board of Education, filed papers to seek Mr. Specter’s seat. Though MSNBC host Chris Matthews has taken his name out of contention, former Pittsburgh Steelers great Franco Harris is also reportedly being wooed by party leaders to make a bid.
Mr. Specter appears to be taking all the maneuvering in stride. When radio host Laura Ingraham on Monday suggested he was being “wined and dined” by the Obama White House, Mr. Specter politely gave her the back of his hand: “Now let’s get off it, Laura. I’m not drinking any wine at the White House and I don’t dine at the White House. If the president wants to talk to me, I talk to him and I make my own independent judgment. Don’t give me the wine and dine baloney, young lady.”
I wish no ill health on anyone but this guy will not run again. He's lucky to make it to the election.
It is a hassle but it logically the only way they can catalog and index all the email they receive by subject.
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