President Bush went to Pittsburgh on Monday and called on Republicans (you have to be one, to qualify to vote in next Tuesday's primary) to vote for the incumbent senator, Arlen Specter. That endorsement sent shivers down the spines of GOP conservatives, who are rooting for the other candidate, Patrick J. Toomey.
The presidential endorsement is, after all, political dutifulness. Memory recalls a huge rally of conservatives at Garden City, Long Island, in 1962. The speaker was their hero, Senator Barry Goldwater, whose nomination for president was the heart's desire of the 2,000 persons present. The enemy, in those days, was Senator Jacob Javits, resented routinely because he was a political liberal, but despised because he was a Republican. There is no fury like that felt by the priestly caste against impostors. Everyone was waiting to hear the answer to the question: Senator Goldwater, do you endorse the reelection of Senator Javits?