Pat Toomey

WASHINGTON - Bob Casey wanted more contrition. Bob Menendez wanted scrutiny of what he called "a second scandal. " And Pat Toomey wanted to know how anyone could see IRS targeting of conservatives as anything but political. "On the face of it, it certainly appears that it is completely politically motivated," Toomey (R., Pa.) said at a Senate hearing Tuesday, challenging explanations put forward by the agency's leaders. "To the best of my knowledge, there was no criteria identifying left-of-center organizations as deserving special scrutiny.

Pat Toomey, the man who drove Arlen Specter from the Republican Party, believes it's finally his year to capture a U.S. Senate seat. Toomey is clearly the strongest candidate in the May 18 Republican primary, and he will be tough for any Democrat to beat in November. That's why The Inquirer endorses PAT TOOMEY for the Republican Party nomination. Toomey came so close to beating Specter in the 2004 primary that the possibility of a rematch led Specter to switch parties last year.

It should become apparent next week, after their recess ends, which U.S. senators are in the hip pocket of the financial industry, which has been flexing its muscle for months to block the confirmation of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created the CFPB in 2010 to help avoid another financial collapse. Since then, the bureau has required mortgage lenders to ensure that borrowers can pay their loans and shed light on hidden credit card fees, and is helping college students find fair loans.

Hours after defeating Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, Rep. Joe Sestak hit the campaign trail this morning in pursuit of the seat Specter occupied for 30 years. His Republican opponent, Pat Toomey, also wasted no time and made his way to Philadelphia from his Lehigh Valley home to launch his own run for a seat that had been on the GOP side of the aisle until Specter switched parties last year. Wearing a leather bomber jacket, Sestak, 58, started his day shaking hands of commuters at Philadelphia's Market Street East station before 6 a.m. The former Navy admiral then headed to an independent TV studio in center City for a round of network interviews.

THE WARM BREEZES mean that spring will soon be here. The hot gas blowing from the various campaign camps indicates that election season will soon be here, too. The latest eruptions are coming from the Republicans vying for the U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania: incumbent icon Arlen Specter and challenger Pat Toomey. They're debating how many debates they're going to have and neither is looking all that senatorial. Specter wants just one debate, saying that's been his tradition.

When the Senate blocked President Obama's $447 billion jobs plan Tuesday night, three of four senators from the Philadelphia region were left sputtering at what they labeled a GOP unwillingness to even talk. The fourth, Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), couldn't have been more pleased. Proponents fell short of the 60 votes needed to head off a filibuster. The bill "won't create jobs any more than his last stimulus bill did," said Toomey, one of 12 members of Congress on a so-called "super committee" attempting to address the national deficit this fall.

Nine regional members of Congress from Pennsylvania and Delaware have asked the U.S. Energy Information Administration for an analysis of the regional impact of the possible closing of three area refineries. In September, Sunoco and ConocoPhillips announced that refineries in Philadelphia, Marcus Hook, and Trainer would be put up for sale. If no buyers were found, the facilities would most likely close. In a letter to the energy agency, the members asked about the effects that the closures of the three refineries would have, not only on jobs, but also on the "supply, distribution, dependence on imports, prices, and market volatility for refined products.

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.

Facing a threat from the right in next year's primary, Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) yesterday launched a preemptive strike with a television ad that attacks his likely opponent for ties to Wall Street. The 30-second spot says that Club for Growth president Pat Toomey sold "risky derivatives" as a trader and fought for reduced oversight of Wall Street as a member of the U.S. House, thus helping create the nation's financial mess. It also blasts his support for adding private-investment accounts to Social Security.

Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston served 33 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, retiring in 1995; he was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Vietnam in 1968 Words often have the ability to inspire and motivate, but I've always been a firm believer that you can tell what people are thinking by looking into their eyes. You can tell simply by looking at the faces of those around you that America is in trouble. Pennsylvanians are out of work. Times are tough. We know that America can be great again.