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How wingnutty is Pat Toomey? Somewhere between Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo, analysis says
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How wingnutty is Pat Toomey? Somewhere between Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo, analysis says
Pat Toomey, the Pa. GOP's nominee for Senate, would like you to think he's a mainstream, conservative-but-not-insane kind of guy. That's how his campaign will present him over the next few months. They'll downplay his four-year stint at the helm of the Club for Growth, a far-right organization that sought to evict Republicans it deemed not conservative enough. Instead, they'll talk in generic terms about his "common sense approach" to lower taxes and limited spending, etc., while trying to castigate Joe Sestak, retired Navy admiral, as some lilly-livered Marxist. Sadly, there's a pretty good shot this strategy will work, too, since the election will be far more about the national mood than the merits of the individual candidates.
The truth is, Toomey — at least during his tenure in Congress — had a pretty radical record. Quantifiably so: According to a statistical analysis by Pollster.com's Harry Enten using lawmakers' DW-Nominate scores (a pretty standard political science measurement of ideology, alongside rankings from groups like Americans for Democratic Action and the American Conservative Union), Toomey is way, way, way to the right of even Rick Santorum, whom this state so rightly removed from the Senate back in 2006.
Is Pat Toomey too conservative for Pennsylvania?
This weekend in response to a post I wrote about possible Pennsylvania Senate match-ups Alan Reifman asserted that Toomey "is too far to the right for Pennsylvania." When I saw Reifman's post, I was going to respond "but Pennsylvanians elected Rick Santorum... twice." But before I did, I decided to contrast Santorum's and Toomey's DW-Nominate scores. DW-Nominate scores classify House and Senate members as liberal or conservative based on all their roll call votes than can be identified as liberal or conservative. These scores allow one to compare how rightward or leftward legislators are on a single dimension -1 to 1 scale with higher positive scores indicating a more conservative record*. What I found surprised me.
Using joint House and Senate scaling (which treat the House and Senate a single body to compare scores across chambers), we find that Pat Toomey (.718) had a considerably more conservative voting record than Rick Santorum (.349). To put that number into context, Lincoln Chafee (the ultimate liberal Republican and now independent) had a DW-Nominate score of .002 and Republican Arlen Specter had a score of .067. Republican Specter was slightly to the right of Chafee; Santorum was considerably right of Chafee; and, Toomey was much further right.
Still, I wanted to get a better idea of how conservative Toomey voting record was. So, I pulled the DW-Nominate score of every United States legislator (House and Senate) since 1995**. Â… Indeed, of the 1,004 legislators to receive a DW-Nominate score for their career since 1995, Toomey ranked as the 22nd most conservative.
Toomey, by a very literal definition, is a fringe candidate, and he should be treated as such. He was more right-wing than JD Hayworth, Jim DeMint, and even the racist Jesse Helms. Cue the visual:
The question for the fall, I think, is whether the Pa media (and the Sestak campaign) allow Toomey to track to the middle unfettered, or whether they call him out for being the fringe, radical candidate that his record in Congress says he is.
The racism of your very own Robert Byrd, Democrat, West Virginia: "In the early 1940s, a politically ambitious butcher from West Virginia named Bob Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd had collected the $10 joining fee and $3 charge for a robe and hood from every applicant, the "Grand Dragon" for the mid-Atlantic states came down to tiny Crab Orchard, W.Va., to officially organize the chapter. As Byrd recalls now, the Klan official, Joel L. Baskin of Arlington, Va., was so impressed with the young Byrd's organizational skills that he urged him to go into politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Baskin said." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105.html
Wow, Sally! You managed to dig up something from over 60 years ago that Sen. Byrd freely admits. The man repented in the 1980s, for crying out loud. If you're hoping for that investigative journalism award, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
[...] of wingnutty things to say, and we plan to chronicle all of them for you. WeÂ’ll start with the handy item Jeffrey Billman posted May 21st on the Philadelphia City Paper [...]
[...] Read the full post at citypaper.net var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="How wingnutty is Pat Toomey? Somewhere between Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo, analysis says"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://toomeywatch.com/?p=157"; [...] Jeffrey Billman, you are the wingnut. Toomey is a wonderful man.
Something is terribly wrong with this country when the responsible, conservative politicians are characterized as "wingnuts" and the leftist, socialist liberals consider themselves to be mainstream!
Toomey is indeed a wonderful man if you're anti-American worker, anti-middle class, or an anti-senior voter. He is to the right of Rick Santorum who himself belongs in the Wing Nut Hall of Fame. Toomey represents 2% of the country and that would be the richest 2%.His vote to keep us in the World Trade Organization says it all. He has never seen a free trade agreement he doesn't like.
And Toomey is terribly wrong when the conservative wing of America presumes they have All The Answers. Why can't you folks get it through your heads that everyone doesn't want to live in the '50s?
Tommey is a right wing neo-con, is aginst ssi and is in favor of 70 yrs old to retire just like his bed buddy JOHN BONER pa has a a lot of older peeps only 2nd to flordia and tommey views are not going to seat correct with the senior citzens in pa, Nice try pat tommey as this way of thinking will put you in the same boat as gen custer at lil big horn.
I was once a Republican but that changed when I saw what a wing nut organization it had become. Now Pat Toomey comes along and he wants me to believe that he is different and not like the other Republicans. Not like the other Republicans? He uses the term "liberal" to attack his opponents, you can't get any more Republican than that. Then he says he will reduce spending but never mentions his position on ending tax cuts to the rich. Finally he makes no reference to the fact that it was his own party that caused the Great Recession. No, Pat Toomey is just what he says he is, a conservative Republican and that makes him not for us.
Yes, and what's wrong is that many people fail to understand the meanings of the terms responsible, conservative, leftist, socialist, and liberal. Thanks for serving as an example.
Did Custer have a boat at the Little Big Horn? Here I thought he was a cavalry officer and rode a horse. But "in the same boat as gen custer..." is a really awesome as well as original metaphor, and I can see why you'd want to roll with it, kind of like Admiral Dewey of the field artillery and his caissons rolling along at the battle of Manila Bay. Oh, and btw rad, my genius friend, Custer was a colonel in the U.S. Army at the time he was killed, not a general. Don't worry about trivial things like facts, dude. They'll just slow you down.
Voters should remember that Toomey was a US Congressman for three terms. He helped Bush destroy a budget surplus and create the largest budget deficit in history - but he would have voters think he will help balance the budget. He worked for Wall St as a young man and has been in their pocket ever since. His real goal, shared with the Republican party, is to prove that government is unworkable by getting elected to the Senate and then voting to make sure it becomes unworkable. How quickly the public seems to forget Bush's legacy. The Democrats may not have done all the right things, and certainly not as much as the country needs, largely due to Republican obstructionism, but at least they take government seriously. See Paul Krugman's recent banana republic column for what Toomey will give us. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=paulkrugman&adxnnlx=1285520566-wuAGUt4xPU59PjUIthUvzw
It's not about parties, it's about who's going to follow the constitution, The candidates in the PA Senate Race are both unconstitutional.
Pat Toomey is a very scary dude. He makes Rick(man on dog)Santorum seem reasonable. Please go to your local Sestak for Senate office and find some way to help. There is a Pittsburgh office located at: 4326 Butler St. Pittsburgh, PA 15201 Phone:(412) 533-1200 E-mail: info@JoeSestak.com I was there today the place was buzzing.
[...] statistical analysis by Pollster.comÂ’s Harry Enten places Toomey to the right of Tea Party champion Jim DeMint, J.D. [...]
tell you what you can all pay for the cap and trade, the obamacare and BTW the tax breaks no one will be getting before anyone gets into office! THE whole lot took off to campaign, Thanks for nothing!!!! On OCT 25th the powers that be are for letting the Bush tax breaks expiring for ALL OF US POOR MIDDLE CLASS SLOBS! That means I won't have the child care tax credits, I will be back to the 32% bracket, my mortgage will not be a tax break and BTW my DARN HEALTH INSURANCE WENT UP 47% already but I had to take a pay cut to keep my job. NO WAY WILL I VOTE FOR A DEM! I AM an independant and I will vote the opposite based on the jackwagons that have cost me so much and NO I don't make anywhere near 200,000 how about 50,000 for a family of 5. The last time I voted for DEMS it has cost me dearly!
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