On the one hand....Good riddance to this globalist RINO pain in the ass.
On the other....really good likelihood this seat goes to a Dem next time. Hate to say it but the GOP in this state is largely incompetent.
Don’t let the door knob hit ya Arlen.
He did his part and defeated Sestak in 2010. same as Thune when he took on Tiny Tom in 2004-SD. Good for him to go now b4 he becomes a Specter. Might cost us the seat so we’ll have to make it up elsewhere.
No. He’s a seat that might be lost, and he most often votes with Trump and the Reps.
At least he was slightly smarter than the rest of the GOP-e who decided to retire.
He gave them enough time to find a replacement.
At least he is giving a ton of notice to allow for a good candidate. Disappointed in Toomey. Started my career in Allentown. He would drop by the office and talk to my boss who was his friend. He was a dyed in the wool conservative. But like all politicians, they get to DC and are warped by the swamp.
On another note, when he was running the first time, I had the chance to talk to Santorum at the Union League in Philly. He was there for a fundraiser. I asked why he was not doing more to support Toomey. His answer, which was shockingly frank? He felt that it would lessen his chances to win (the next cycle) because PA would never support two conservative Senators.
One less Bush League Republican.
A lot of you are commenting on Toomey and his past when you should be thinking about holding the seat. If Sean Parnell wins his House race maybe he should run for this Senate seat? I’m sure there’s a long line of old white guy chomping at the bit. I fear we may lose the seat to an AOC-like radical.
We’ll now see his true colors, probably. Not having to face the electorate again sometimes free up a politician to vote his “conscience”.
We had a squishy moderate/liberal Senator — Richard Schweiker — here in Pennsylvania many years ago who eventually became a decent Senator, but only after two things happened:
1. He was named as VP candidate on the Reagan ‘76 ticket, and saw firsthand that while Reagan was a staunch conservative he actually wasn’t — gasp! — a monster.
2. Schweiker announced that he wasn’t running for re-election in 1980 (Arlen Specter won that election).
After that announcement, Schweiker went from being noticeably left of center to noticeably RIGHT of center though not to be confused with being 100% conservative or anything close. He went from being 60-70% liberal to being about 60-70% conservative (rough figures).
His record through most of his career was well to the left of even Toomey and pretty much a match for most of Arlen Specter’s career. Once he decided to think for himself, he was a very pleasant surprise for a couple of years. I’m not counting on Toomey AT ALL to do the right thing, but I suppose there’s a small chance that he could pull a “Schweiker”.
Bye Bitch!
Toomey pledged to run on term limits and stepped down from his safe Congressional seat after 3 terms (6 years) He is simply keeping his pledge to term limit himself and step down after 2 terms as Senator. How many R’s, much less D’s can that be said about.
I have met Toomey multiple times. Personally flipped 3 voters the weekend before the primary election when he ran against Snarlin Arlen Spector while Bush and Santorum were pushing hard for Spector. He lost that primary but ran 6 years later and caused Spector to switch parties cause Spector knew he would lose to Toomey. Reid promised Spector they would support him in the Demo primary if he switched. He did and they didn’t and Spector lost his seat in a democratic primary after being a Republican senator for 30 years. Spector’s demise, a real true blue RINO, demo in R jersey, rabid pro-abortion, American hating jerk, is credited to Toomey.
True, Toomey did not run with Trump 4 years ago cause he like Trump himself and everyone else thought he would lose and definitely not win PA, even though the irony is that Trump pulled him over the finish line.
True, Toomey talks like a moderate and a RINO, but he has figured out how to win twice state wide in PA. No one else has been able to do that for decades, unless you want to count Tom Ridge, who is also a RINO and endorsed Biden last week.
Toomey may not be as conservative as you like, but he has NEVER cost the Republican’s a single vote on any issue that mattered. He has been a faithful, pro-life conservative in a state where most R’s could and would have never made it.
I noticed some Freepers always throw him in along with most of the other R’s as Rinos that need primaried. Toomey should not be one of them. Not that we Freeper’s opinions have any effect on anything, but stating such things makes us no more creditable than the nut jobs on DU.
We need R’s like Toomey to get to majorities where we can get things done. You guys know not of what you speak or write.
EMPTY SUIT! BYE!