Pat Toomey

THE Daily News endorsement of liberal Sen. Arlen Specter for re-election is no surprise. But the flowery rhetoric behind the endorsement is misleading at best. For example, the editorial notes that Specter does not always "toe the conservative line. " Understatement of the century. Specter has voted to raise taxes six times as senator and voted to chop the Bush tax cut to help the economy grow. But what was most unfair was the claim that Rep. Pat Toomey gets all his money from out of state "special interests" like the Club for Growth.

WASHINGTON - After one of the most remarkable announcements of his public career, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey sat down in his office with the parents of some of the children killed in the Newtown shootings. Clutching photos of their loved ones, they thanked him. Toomey, a Republican best known for his focus on fiscal issues, had become an unlikely catalyst for advancing the most significant new gun law in two decades. That morning, he had announced a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.)

By John R. Lott Jr. Everyone wants to keep criminals from getting guns. However, expanded background checks are not the simple answer that Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) think they are. Unfortunately, as the Senate considers the Manchin-Toomey amendment, Toomey is simply wrong to assert: "It's the people who fail a criminal or mental-health background check who we don't want having guns. " Toomey apparently does not understand how the background-check system works.

RE MICHAEL Smerconish's column about Pat Toomey and his abortion stand: I must disagree with my great friend Mike Smerconish over the Specter vs. Toomey abortion debate. Ask Pat (and you should), and he'll explain that his evolution from casual opinion to strong pro-life advocacy came over time. Remarkably, that's also the American story, changed from 70 percent pro-choice to 70 percent pro-life in two decades. Changing opinions can be opportunistic or genuine. When a NARAL executive found I had no serious abortion opinion, she challenged me to take a principled stand one way or the other.

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic candidate for Senate, is launching his first TV commercial of the fall campaign Tuesday, a populist spot that slams his Republican opponent as a corporate champion indifferent to the middle-class. Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey "thinks corporations shouldn't pay any taxes," the ad says, using a clip from a 2007 CNBC telecast in which he advocated eliminating corporate taxes to help U.S. firms compete internationally and thus create more jobs. Next, a series of mostly black-and-white photos of worried-looking families appears, as an announcer says, "The middle class is struggling.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House U.S. debt priorities. Voting 221-207, the House on Thursday sent the Senate a Republican bill (HR 807) giving payment priority to bondholders, such as domestic pension funds and foreign governments, if the Treasury were unable to meet all of its debt obligations. Social Security trust funds would be next in line, followed in no special order by the thousands of fiscal obligations - everything from military salaries to education grants to veterans benefits - routinely funded by the Treasury.

Planting seeds of job growth Gov. Corbett's trade missions have benefited the entire state, and demonstrate his dedication to bringing well-paying jobs to Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, the result will be a world-leading port. When the governor negotiated the refineries deal here, he saved hundreds of jobs. His latest deal to bring in a containerized-cargo shipper, Horizon Lines Inc., is another example of how Corbett continuously comes up with creative ways to grow jobs. Benjamin Fogel, Bala Cynwyd, bfogel95@gmail.com Bishop never lost touch While a consultant to Cardinal Justin Rigali, I worked with then-Auxiliary Bishop Joseph P. McFadden on a sexual-assault prevention and education program for high school sophomores in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill sponsored by Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) that would have expanded background checks on gun buyers to include sales made at gun shows and online. Sixty votes were needed to advance the bipartisan measure. The plan received 54 votes. Forty-six senators voted "no. " President Obama, who had pushed an array of gun-control measures in the aftermath of the Newtown school shootings, called the vote a "shameful day for Washington.

'I'M A conservative Yahoo and that is why I have decided to challenge Arlen Specter in a Senate primary. " That's what I took away from Pat Toomey's piece on this page last week. More accurate would have been: "I am an opportunist and that is why I have decided to challenge Arlen Specter in a Senate primary. " At least that is what is suggested by an analysis of Pat Toomey's flip-flopping on a key issue on which he rests his conservative bona fides. That issue is the A-bomb of elections: Abortion.