As I drive around the Pittsburgh area, I see a good number of Toomey signs, but I have yet to see a single Specter sign. That certainly doesn’t mean that Toomey will win, but I think it is indicative that Toomey supporters are energized and excited about their candidate. I don’t know anyone who is excited about six more years of our dear Arlen. They expect him to win, and to continue to bring home the pork to PA, but they don’t particularly like him. They don’t call him Snarlin’ Arlen for his endearing personality.

The National Review has an article from Friday calling Arlen the Democrat’s water boy, and relates an episode when Democrat Tom Harkin needed to leave an appropriations committee meeting when the Republicans were actually trying to cut pork out of a domestic spending bill.

So there were the negotiations going full-bore, and there was Harkin looking at his watch, and then there was Harkin tapping Specter on the shoulder and pulling him aside. Two minutes of very friendly conversation later, after (quite literally) a chummy backslap or two, Harkin left for some other engagement, and Specter returned to the table. A few minutes later, Specter moved to insert (or to block the deletion of; I don’t remember which) some egregious pork project for Iowa — I think I remember it being a water project — that, in a year where GOP appropriators were assiduously fighting special earmarked projects, stood out (at least to me) like a thumb sore from plugging a dike. Lots of grumbles ensued. But Specter pushed back his chair as if to exit the room. No project for Harkin, no deal — even though Republicans controlled majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Compromises get made in Congress all the time, of course, and projects slip in under the radar. Ronald Reagan traded some sugar subsidies to Louisiana Sen. John Breaux in return for a crucial tax-cutting vote, and the trade was well worth the effort. But Specter’s favor for Harkin seemed made not in pursuit of any broader ideal, not for any greater good, but just because porkers watch out for each other.

Arlen is actually proud of his ability to spend our tax money. The Opinion Journal quotes him as saying:

“My adversaries accuse me of voting for pork,” he told me last year. “I call it bringing home the bacon.”

Arlen forgets that he took that money out of our pockets (or out of our children’s pockets) to do us the favor of giving it back to us in exchange for our votes.

I’ve always wondered why Arlen wasn’t actually a Democrat, since that would agree more with his politics. It turns out, he was a Democrat, but changed parties out of political expedience rather than out of political conviction.

Mr. Specter developed his tireless work ethic early as he rose from humble origins to graduate from Yale Law School. He then moved to Philadelphia to enter politics. Originally a Democrat, he became a Republican at 35 when in 1965 the local Democratic machine turned down his request to be nominated for district attorney. The GOP nomination was his for the asking, but he covered his bases. He changed his party registration only after he had won.

So, who’s going to win tomorrow? Toomey says he will, but that’s what you’d expect him to say. I’ve got a pretty good record of voting for the loser in most political races, so if that holds true, we can expect our dear Arlen to be around at least until November.