Money & Politics With Jon Delano

      Arlen Specter, the 79-year old Pennsylvania senator who has served in the U.S. Senate longer than anyone in state history, has to be just a little bit worried.  That's because Pat Toomey, the former Lehigh County congressman who nearly knocked him off in 2004, is going to go at Specter again in 2010.

      I sat down with Toomey the other day, and make no mistake, he's running again and will make it official sometime in April.  Toomey is a solid economic conservative, who can hardly control his anger over Specter's support of President Obama's economic stimulus and recovery plan.  He essentially charges Specter with "enabling" one of the most liberal Democratic administrations in history to succeed.  And he says the Spector is a classic RINO -- Republican in name only -- who really acts more like a "big government liberal Democrat."

      For all his tough talk, Toomey still faces one of the state's most enduring politicians.  Specter has no problem going for the jugular, and already laid the groundwork for that by accusing Toomey of supporting "deregulation" of the financial markets which led to the crash on Wall Street that hurt so many families. 

      The 2004 Republican primary was one of the ugliest, and 2010 is likely to be no different.  Except for one big difference -- George W. Bush is not in office to be featured in Specter's campaign ads, which undoubtedly helped Specter in the Republican primary back then.  And, then there's Rick Santorum.  Santorum embraced his senior colleague, to the dismay of many of his conservative supporters, back in 2004.   In 2010, Santorum does not have the clout he once enjoyed, as a "former" senator, but he does have his friends.  

      My gut tells me -- free of the White House and his own incumbency -- Rick Santorum will endorse Pat Toomey over Arlen Specter in 2010.  I could be way off on this, but left to follow his own ideology it makes more sense for Santorum to line up with his hard core right-wing base, a base that will be gungho for Toomey.

      Do you think this will happen?  And do you think Toomey will walk all over Specter, especially now that so many more moderate Republicans have switched parties.  Or do you think that the inimitable Specter will continue to pull it out of the hat for yet another victory?  Let me hear from you.