(Cross-posted from Blue News Tribune.)
From Talking Points Memo.
The numbers: Toomey 41%, Specter 27%. Specter’s loss of his Republican base also leaves him with weak numbers for a general election, with only 31% against a generic Democrat’s 33%.
(snip)
Keep in mind that Pennsylvania uses a closed primary, and the number of registered Republicans has fallen since 2004 — when Specter only held off Toomey by a 51%-49% margin — leaving a very conservative base. And Specter’s vote for the stimulus bill certainly can’t have helped him.
I believe we should fear this. Just last week, a “union consultant” was willing to consider endorsing Specter. That’s gone, because Specter said he won’t for the Employee Free Choice Act, but it speaks volumes that they were willing to dangle the prospect of union support for a Republican.
The Republican Party is clearly at a crossroads, and we don’t want it thinking it needs fewer Specters and more Toomeys.
Specter is far from perfect, of course, but he is generally reachable and willing to negotiate.
Toomey, by contrast, leads the Club for Growth.
Club for Growth Policy Goals:
– Making the Bush tax cuts permanent
– Death tax repeal
– Cutting and limiting government spending
– Social Security reform with personal retirement accounts
– Expanding free trade
– Legal reform to end abusive lawsuits
– Replacing the current tax code
– School choice
– Regulatory reform and deregulation
Dashes are bullets in original; sorry, CGF.
“School choice,” aka “vouchers for private schools.” Ick …
I don’t think the Republicans deserve fewer Lugars and more Palins, but that’s what they clearly want. What the people of Pennsylvania deserve is Senator Pat Murphy.
is that GOP moderates will stand up for what they deserve.
at least in Pennsylvania. They all became democrats or independents to vote for Obama!
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p>The truth is that Arlen Specter is no longer representative of the Republicans left in his state. The only Republicans left in his state are the fringe right. They are going to vote for the guy who represents their interests, Mr. Club for Growth, and that’s fine. Thankfully, he’ll lose and we’ll have a representative from Pennsylvania who is far more representative of his or her state. Believe it or not, this is how Government is supposed to work.
They’re just ignored. Christine Todd Whitman wrote a book on this and did the talk show tour. Lincoln Chaffee sounded the warning a few times, even declared his attention not to vote for Dubya in 2004 — his reward was a primary from Club for Growth. Gilchrist, a sitting Republican Congressman in Virginia campaigned for the Democrat after he lost his primary. The GOP mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska endorsed Obama.
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p>There are warnings aplenty. However, they are ignored and I can see why the remaining moderates in the GOP despair.
I forget where I saw this, but I remember reading some comment that the entire political spectrum from the days of the Eisenhower Administration is now in the Democratic Party.
The damage he did to the american recovery act will cost this country thousands and thousands of jobs when we needed it the most. Beyond the stimulus, he’s only ever “negotiated” on issues that the Republicans didn’t require his vote. If it was close, he almost always caved.
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p>I’m very glad he’s shown his true colors by announcing he won’t support EFCA. That will officially be the end of him. Specter is alone now and will lose. Pennsylvania’s a different state than it once was. They aren’t going to miss him.
I won’t defend his changes, but Specter at least voted for the final bill. House Republicans demanded concessions, then voted against the final bill.
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p>The GOP bar is mighty low. Toomey would lower it.