Toomey: staid pillar
Jill Lawrence at Politics Daily has a new story up on Pat Toomey, who she says is rather staid compared to some of his other insurgent GOP peers:
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- How strange is this campaign year? So strange that Pat Toomey -- the diehard conservative who drove Arlen Specter out of the Republican Party -- seems almost middle of the road compared with his fellow Republican Senate nominees.
Toomey worked on Wall Street, helped start a family restaurant business, served in Congress for a self-limited six years and then became president of the Club for Growth -- an anti-tax, anti-spending, business advocacy group that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee once labeled the Club for Greed.
These days, the Club for Growth comes off as a staid pillar of the conservative establishment, and so does Toomey. He hasn't suggested repeal of the 17th Amendment, which decreed that voters -- not state legislatures -- should choose U.S. senators. He hasn't talked about "Second Amendment solutions" to dissatisfaction with government. He hasn't objected to any portion of the Civil Rights Act or questioned the constitutionality of unemployment benefits. Those are stands taken by various Republican Senate nominees backed, and sometimes catapulted to primary victories, by Tea Party endorsements and money.
These days, the Club for Growth comes off as a staid pillar of the conservative establishment, and so does Toomey. He hasn't suggested repeal of the 17th Amendment, which decreed that voters -- not state legislatures -- should choose U.S. senators. He hasn't talked about "Second Amendment solutions" to dissatisfaction with government. He hasn't objected to any portion of the Civil Rights Act or questioned the constitutionality of unemployment benefits. Those are stands taken by various Republican Senate nominees backed, and sometimes catapulted to primary victories, by Tea Party endorsements and money.