HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — 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.
Pat Toomey
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 he 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.
Toomey’s announcement coincided with “tax day” – the deadline for filing federal income tax returns – as fellow anti-tax activists planned protests nationwide.
Toomey, 47, had said this year that he was considering a bid for the governorship in 2010. But his sights shifted back to the Senate in March, after Specter bucked party leaders and cast one of three GOP votes – all in the Senate – to pass the $787 federal economic stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed in February.
Specter, 79, one of a dwindling number of moderates in an increasingly conservative GOP caucus, said he was voting his conscience, “not my own personal political interest.” Toomey painted the stimulus package as part of a federal response to the recession that he said has put the nation “on a dangerously wrong path.”
Toomey’s announcement confirmed what had been virtually an open secret in recent weeks. At a gathering of Pennsylvania conservatives last month, Toomey received a standing ovation when he assured supporters that “it is very, very likely that very soon I will be a candidate for the United States Senate.” (Read more.)
B.S. Report–There’s a pretty good chance that Toomey will defeat Specter and it should have been done long ago. Specter has been a cancer that has continuously sold out the Republican Party countless times.
He has few conservative principles and his votes on Supreme Court nominees is always an adventure. The Obama Revolt is gathering momentum and it is issue driven; not hate driven like so many protests of the left.
Here’s a flashback of the mealy-mouthed Specter and just what we would be missing with his ouster from the Senate.
THE B.S. REPORT 