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Democrats in Washington are bent on "lurching the country to the left," Pat Toomey was saying, with their "serial bailouts" favoring big government over individual freedom and responsibility and, of course, the $787 billion stimulus and its "pig odor."

Murmurs of assent greeted the conservative former congressman as he built his case, but the crowd of 250 at the Franklin County Republican Party's annual spring dinner burst into applause only when he called out Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) as the Democrats' chief enabler.

"The fact is, Arlen Specter made this happen," said Toomey, president of the national limited-government activist group Club for Growth. "I think a Republican senator from Pennsylvania ought to govern based on the conservative ideas at the heart of the Republican Party, and that's why - Arlen, are you listening? - it is very likely that I will become a candidate for the United States Senate."

Toomey came within 17,000 votes of beating Specter in the 2004 Republican primary, and he had been laying the groundwork for a campaign for governor next year - until Specter provided one of only three Republican votes for President Obama's stimulus bill, and landed back in trouble with his party's right wing. Then Toomey changed his goal.