Arlen Specter Gets a Challenger

It's been a bad couple of days for people with last names that sound like Specter. First Phil Spector was convicted of 2nd degree murder in Los Angeles, and now Sen. Arlen Specter finds out he'll have a tough conservative opponent in his Senate race - Pat Toomey:

In a widely expected move, Pat Toomey announced he's going to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

Toomey, who stepped down as president of the fiscally conserative Club for Growth, made the announcement yesterday in an e-mail to supporters.

“I personally believe that it is time for him to go,” Toomey wrote of Specter, per Roll Call. “And that job falls on me. Very soon, I intend to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate in a Republican primary challenge against Arlen Specter.”

Some polling has already been done and Specter is down by 20 points or so. This time he's in big trouble.

The National Republican Senatorial Campaign has already come out in support of Specter, as you'd expect. They pretty much have to do that for their incumbents.

However, the rank-and-file Republicans in Pennsylvania can do whatever they want, and I'm thinking that at least right now they want to see some "change".