So, admirably conservative Pat Toomey lost yesterday in the Pennsylvania primary to RINO and four-term incumbent Arlen Specter by a narrow margin of about 16,000 votes.
The PoliPundit team says it's a satisfying outcome:
This is a good result. It allows the GOP to put forward a 4-term incumbent as its candidate in November.And "moderate" Republican senators have just had a loud warning shot fired across their bow. The next time they're voting on a bill, they should remember not just the ultra-liberal Washington press corps, but their conservative constituents back home. If a 4-term incumbent in a swing state can almost be defeated by a young challenger who's outspent 3-1, then no Republican senator is safe from a conservative primary challenge.
They also note an interesting voting pattern:
Central PA which is the conservtive bastion in the state went to...Specter. The results from the central counties show a remarkably tight race with Specter generally pulling out wins by a few hundred votes. This indicates that the rural conservative voters who were expected to vote Toomey instead voted for Specter. Draw your own conclusions about the Bush/Santorum endorsements. Another factor I imagine is the inability to reach these voters with the kind of saturated issues pieces/calls received in the Pittsburgh region thus leading them to rely more on the weight of the president's endorsement.
Ergo, Specter now owes his continued political career to George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Think this will cause the dimwitted Specter, widely known as "Snarlin' Arlen" and "The Arlenator" to his own staff, to vote like a Republican and actually help the President in the Senate Judiciary Committee...? Nah, I don't either.
Posted by Alan at April 28, 2004 08:28 PM