A must read article on Pat Toomey, RINOs, Chris Lilik and other things that go bump in the night:

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Re-Elect Rick Santorum (They Hope)
The 2004 Senate primary may end up being the race that exposed the growing divide within the GOP here in Pennsylvania, and on the national level as well. The Specter-Toomey race put on display the now obvious split in the GOP between the new big government establishment conservatives and the small government revolutionary conservatives. The big government types, and their Champion Arlen, pushed the old “I’ll deliver more” agenda, using Arlen’s seniority and placement on the Appropriations committee as bait for voters hungry for a taste at the federal trough, just like the old-time Democrats had done when they ran the show. The small government types rallies behind Toomey, who promised not pork but the pig, pledging to cut spending and taxes and get the government in line again, just like the GOP outsiders of old. Even with 24 years of seniority and a plum place in line on appropriations, coupled with gobs of cash and the vocal endorsement of the two most popular Republicans in the state, Arlen almost lost. The voter turnout and the power of Toomey’s message split the state GOP.

Over a year later, that split still exists, as evidenced by the YCOP’s admirable attempt to remind Republicans they are, in fact, Republicans. (Note: In the interest of candor, I do not oppose the pay raise itself, but I am troubled by the unvouchered expense accounts which are a clear end-run around the spirit of the law). The driving force behind the YCOPs are all former Toomey guys, fed up with Republicans more interested in expanding the Party’s base than with maintaining ideological purity with the god of all revolutionary conservatives under 40, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the original small government conservative President (philosophically, at least).

Chris Lilik’s and the YCOPs’ crusade to get voters to “Remember the Pay Raise” is admirable, even if most think it is a fool’s errand. You can disagree with them (got news for you – their side outnumbers yours), you can ignore them, but you must admire them. They are heirs in a long proud history of American political subversives using hot button issues to wake a dormant public to what is going on around them. And like Sam Adams and John Hancock before them, chanting “no taxation without representation” to a population just opening its eyes to the perverse power structure that placed the power in the small country to lord it over the larger one, the YCOPs may just wake up an electorate ready to exercise its most powerful tool, one more powerful than all the money either side can raise, the power to understand that a change is needed and only one person can tell you how to vote.

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