Conservatism Is Back -- And This Time It's Serious

The really smart guys, they knew I couldn't win," Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., told the annual Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday. It wasn't a figure of speech. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had told Politico in early 2009, "I don't think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator [in Pennsylvania]." At that point, Toomey was the only Republican candidate in the race.

But even in blue Pennsylvania, a hub of labor activism and free-trade skepticism, Toomey proved last November that an unabashed social and fiscal conservative can still win. As the broader election showed, not just any conservative can do this. It takes someone who is serious.

Every movement has its kooks, and they inevitably become louder when their party loses power. The Tea Party uprising produced many quality candidates in 2010, but it also produced some real stinkers. And the media made sure that the very worst of the worst received the most attention - witness the almost maniacal obsession with Christine O'Donnell in Delaware.

Even as she slid toward a predictable defeat, a different story unfolded quietly in Pennsylvania, where a true conservative worthy of the Tea Party label ran one of the most flawless and disciplined campaigns of the year. Toomey's victory proved that the best movements can overcome the characters at their own fringes, so long as they have solid centers.

Toomey was not a charismatic candidate, nor is he a gifted speaker. In his natural, unaffected monotone, he told his CPAC crowd of how he had once addressed his daughter's second-grade class, only to have a 7-year-old girl approach him afterward and tell him: "I just want you to know, that's the worst speech I've ever heard in my entire life."

But even if he didn't give fancy speeches, Toomey was smart about what he said on the campaign trail. He didn't suggest "Second Amendment remedies" for dealing with the Democratic Congress, or repeat made-up Internet stories about Islamic Shariah law being imposed on U.S. towns.

At the same time, he didn't back away from his long-held conservative stances on issues. Critics had tried to use these to brand him as an extremist during his first statewide race, when he challenged and nearly defeated liberal Republican Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2004 GOP primary.

After one month as a senator, Toomey has already shown that he is more than a back-bench bomb thrower who draws attention to himself by tweeting whatever comes to mind. His first bill, the Full Faith and Credit Act, would put repayment of Treasury bonds above other obligations. It is a serious legislative proposal that would, he said, "take off the table this false specter of a default and allow us to have an honest debate about ... structural reforms." No less an authority than Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said the bill would dramatically reduce the stakes of one of Congress' silliest annual rituals, the vote to raise the federal debt ceiling.

As Toomey told his CPAC audience, "the most irresponsible thing we can do is vote to raise the debt limit and then simply continue business as usual."

Read more at the Washington Examiner