[Alberta's Child]

I'll tell you exactly what's happening here.

The GOP is more concerned about seniority in this seat than they are about ideology. If Ted Kennedy represented Pennsylvania and called himself a Republican, you'd have Santorum and Bush kissing his @ss no matter how much of a Marxist he is.

[JenB]

The GOP is playing politics, of course. They're protecting the incumbent. That's the way the rules work.

That doesn't mean we, the voters, have to listen to them! Toomey's doing a great job getting out grassroots support. I am very hopeful that he wins. I'll certainly be getting my vote in, on Tuesday. But if he doesn't I'm not taking my anger out on Bush - that's stupid, I don't want Kerry to be my President.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The GOP is more concerned about seniority in this seat than they are about ideology. If Ted Kennedy represented Pennsylvania and called himself a Republican, you'd have Santorum and Bush kissing his @ss no matter how much of a Marxist he is.

Exactly. All that talk about 'standard policy' of protecting incumbents is horse feces. It's nothing more than the usual Washington and GOP country clubbers giving hand jobs to one another.

[JohnnyZ]

The GOP is more concerned about seniority in this seat than they are about ideology.

For the Pennsylvania state GOP, especially many of the local officials, that is undoubtedly true. They want "Six More Years!" of pork. It's a fairly universal phenomenon.

The taboo about challenging incumbents is a somewhat different issue. Primaries take a lot of time and money, and can sap the strength of a party apparatus. If the 11th Commandment was maintained, it wouldn't be a big deal, but if you had Republicans attacking Republicans every election, people would start to get a real low impression of Republicans, because the criticism would validate the charges coming from the Democrats.