PA-Sen: Toomey's In

Arlen Specter's Senatorial career ends today.

Pat Toomey, who as a little-known congressman nearly defeated Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2004 primary, announced Wednesday that he will mount another challenge when Specter seeks the Republican nomination for a sixth term next year.

Toomey, who stepped down Monday as president of the Washington-based Club for Growth, appealed to his conservative base in a statement released just before 8 a.m., while Toomey made a series of TV appearances in the Philadelphia area.

"Pennsylvanians deserve a voice in the U.S. Senate that will honor our values and fight for limited government, individual freedom and fiscal responsibility. I will be that voice," Toomey said.

The silliness of Toomey's claim to fiscal responsibility (do the names George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, all of whom raised the national debt to record levels, ring a bell?) notwithstanding, I don't see how he loses the primary. He lost 51-49 in 2004 and the Republican Party in Pennsylvania has since gotten much more conservative, as moderates left for the Democratic Party in droves. Specter's going to go relentlessly negative and paint Toomey as a Wall Street tool, but he's toast. Toomey will be the nominee, and hopefully we'll put the best Democrat possible against him, because whoever has the D next to his name will be heavily favored against that extremist.