Lotsa talk over at Josh Marshall’s place about the possibility of Ridge getting into the Pa. Senate race, whether Joe Sestak is poised to give Specter more of a run for his money than might be expected in the Dem primary, etc.

All of it interesting speculation, but pointless.

Tom Ridge is not going to run in the Pennsylvania Republican primary. Because if he does, it augurs a full-scale GOP civil war. There is but one reason Ridge gets into the race: because some in the GOP think, correctly, that Toomey is too far to the right and thus unelectable in a general election.

The mere suggesion will infuriate the hard right - and I think Toomey still wins. Ridge has the name recognition, but the party as a whole has moved too far to the right to elect another pro-choice Republican, another “RINO.”

On the other side of the aisle, I think one of Marshall’s readers gets it right when he says this:

Even if Specter has gotten off on the wrong foot with Dems, his defection in the first place shows that he’s willing to do whatever it takes for political survival. He’ll eventually do whatever is required to ingratiate himself to the party and to keep the blessings of Obama, Biden, Reid, etc.. That includes being on the right side of unions and health care. If he starts by playing ball with the coming supreme court nomination, Obama will send word from on high that Specter is not to be challenged.

That’s exactly right. Is Specter as progressive as Sestak would be? Of course not. But Democrats ought not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Update: And, again via Marshall - the right is already ramping up the opposition to Ridge.