Toomey: Running against Specter 'back on table'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review PAPolitics ^ | Salena Zito

[Salena Zito]

Posted March 2, 2009 11 :23 AM

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R PA-15), president of the Club for Growth said on WAEB, a Lehigh Valley radio show that a Primary challenge to Senator Arlen Specter is "now back on the table."

Via an email from Republican candidate for state House Ron Shegda:

"Toomey acknowledged that "Senator Specter cast the deciding vote on the very worrisome stimulus Bill, when he could have negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama for more productive tax cuts and less wasteful spending."

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

There is no way on God's green earth that an across-the-board conservative would have then been or could be now elected Senator in PA.

Funny - most non-PA Freepers consider Rick Santorum an "across-the-board conservative", and he was elected to the U.S. Senate from PA.

Twice. (1994-2000)

I assume you are not from PA, judging from your statement, as our state is not easily categorized with a traditional red-blue divide. Therefore, you may want to re-check your original premises

But his strategic value to conservatives has undoubtedly expired with his Porkulus vote...He's just a corrupt,unethical & thoroughly amoral slime who was willing to sell out his country & his own grandkids' economic futures in exchange for a single suck-up dinner with the President & a few pieces of silver to take home to the folks.

Agreed. However, he was the exact same Arlen in 2004.

Supporting him was wrong then, just as it is now.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Is it yet known who the Democrat is Toomey will lose to?

I see you are just as wise now as you were in 2004. It is GOPers like you that give the Republican Party its truly well-earned nickname.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Word has it Specter is going to support Obama on card check.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Bush

[Arizona Carolyn]

If you recall we all bombarded Frist not to put Specter in charge of the Judicial committee back in 2004/2005 and he wrest assurance Specter would vote GOP... I thought then and think now Frist should have put Specter firmly in his place and passed him over.

[Tribune7]

If Santorum stayed out of it, Toomey would have won.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I thought then and think now Frist should have put Specter firmly in his place and passed him over.

Agreed. Thanks for the reminder on Frist - another GOP pol no longer around to answer for Arlen and his betrayals.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I remember that. That’s when I got my first inkling that the GOP leadership was filled with people who didn’t know how to wield power. They only knew how to be the minority party.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Burgh ping...

[Nateman]

Ditto

[TAdams8591]

Most agreed and another good point. Rick won’t be around to mess it up this time. Now that I think of it, neither will President Bush. : )

[JrsyJack]

There is no way on God's green earth that an across-the-board conservative would have then been or could be now elected Senator in PA.

Was Rick Santorum a moderate?

[Tribune7]

And if Toomey beats Specter I think he will win. He’s a very smart, mild-mannered but tough guy.

[leilani]

Yes, you guys are both right to correct me on Santorum. But his appeal didn’t last in PA. And I agree with Ogie’s statement about PA being a tough state to peg wrt the red/blue divide; it’s truly a frustratingly amorphous enigma for the amateur political strategist to try to get a handle on.

[JrsyJack]

You are correct. It was Santorum’s arch conservative stance during the Terry Schiavo affair that lead to his defeat. His opponents were able to portray him as a right wing religious nut job. It didn't hurt that his opponent was the son of a very popular conservative Democrat Governor. Ironically Gov. Casey's pro-life beliefs disqualified him from speaking at the the Dem Nat’l Convention. His son harbors no such beliefs.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

"...it’s truly a frustratingly amorphous enigma for the amateur political strategist to try to get a handle on."

Very true. The vast majority of Democrats in the central and western part of the state are militantly pro-life and pro-gun. That being said, there is a huge "Union mentality" of fiscal liberalism in PA, including among many GOP members. Add to that the huge political/cultural chasm between Philly and the rest of the state, and PA is unlike any other state with regards to political prognostication.

Basically, it depends on the demographics of the matchup. Bob Casey was a masterstroke for the 'Rats - a nominally pro-life (he isn't really) candidate with huge name recongition.

In 2010, the GOP is helped by the fact that the Philly fraud machine will not be cranked up like it would be in a Presidential election year. Also, the closed primary system discourages a lot of the shenanigans you saw in the GOP presidential primaries last year.

Toomy won three terms as a U.S. Rep in a 'Rat majority district (Lehigh Valley), each time by a larger margin. He has that unique ability to communicate conservative values in a way that appeals to, rather than threatens, the mushy middle.

All in all, Pat is a winner in 2010 - as long as Fast Eddie doesn't try an 11th-hour jump into the race once his buddy Arlen bites the dust, and the GOP powers-that-be don't muck it up again (see 2004).

Best wishes -

OO

[TAdams8591]

We agree.

[mkjessup]

Is that 250% more than the available voters in those counties?

It's probably more than all the available livestock as well.

[leilani]

All in all, Pat is a winner in 2010 - as long as Fast Eddie doesn't try an 11th-hour jump into the race once his buddy Arlen bites the dust, and the GOP powers-that-be don't muck it up again (see 2004)

I sure hope you're right. With all that Obama & his Congress are up to now, I think notoriously fickleminded PA will be more than ready for him by then and if I were one of those powers-that-be, I'd be concentrating PR resources in that state right now to help get it ripe for the picking.