They've got to be chugging Maalox in the headquarters of Arlen Specter, who is facing conservative congressman Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania's April 27 Republican Senate primary.

* They've got to be chugging Maalox in the headquarters of Arlen Specter, who is facing conservative congressman Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania's April 27 Republican Senate primary. A mid-March statewide poll of people who say they are "certain" to vote shows Toomey coming on strong, slashing the liberal Republican's once-sizeable lead in half. It's now in single digits (Specter leads 47 to 38 percent). And a late-March survey of GOP voters in the Philadelphia area, Specter's political base, shows that his 24 years in Congress have not bought the incumbent strong support. Only 46 percent of Republicans there back him, while 33 percent support Toomey. Worse for Specter, there is clearly room for Toomey to grow. A bare majority of self-proclaimed pro-lifers and conservatives currently supports Specter, many no doubt because he is so familiar to them. Toomey enjoys solid backing from the Club for Growth, and will be able to get his message out. Which is one more reason for the worst Republican senator to worry.