Ah, the paradoxes of politics!

The most interesting recent example is this: the disgruntled right wing of the Republican Party, still smarting over the Schwarzenegger victory, want to show their strength lest anyone forget it. They are supporting right-wing challenger Pat Toomey in his bid to unseat fourth-term Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter in the Republican primary.

Despite nearly $10 million in campaign funds, an endorsement from President Bush, and a double-digit lead in the polls, Specter faces a bona fide primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, a Lehigh Valley conservative whose candidacy has become a rallying cry for the party's right flank.

The April 27 primary has attracted national attention for the way it crystallizes the party's underlying power struggle between its moderate and conservative wings.

"This campaign will be read as to what extent the conservatives have gained power in the party," said Mike Young, a former Pennsylvania State University professor who now works as a polling consultant.

The problem is, if they get their way and Toomey beats Specter in the primary, moderate Democrat U.S. Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel, described as "rested and well-funded, because he will be unopposed in the Democratic primary" will win the general election!

Were I a Democrat, I'd send as much money as I could to Toomey. Who knows; with any luck, he might even hurt Bush in Pennsylvania!

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the above is a political opinion, and has nothing to do with my personal preferences, if any. For all I know, Toomey is more in line with my way of thinking than Specter. That's irrelevant to political reality.

UPDATE: The Toomey campaign is being heavily bankrolled by the Club for Growth -- a group whose latest antics are highlighted by John Perry Barlow, who fears it is pushing the country into

a purely idiotic professional wrestling match between gay atheist Harvard professors and some good ol' refugees from "Deliverance"

Now that I think about it, the Club for Growth (which I once naively believed to be a libertarian outfit) purged a gay man from its leadership ranks in September -- apparently bowing to demands by religious conservatives. While I have little sympathy for people who run around hurling accusations of "homophobia" (a word I do not like), worrying about people's sexual preferences hardly strikes me as "libertarian."