How wingnutty is Pat Toomey? Somewhere between Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo, analysis says

Pat Toomey, the Pa. GOP's nominee for Senate, would like you to think he's a mainstream, conservative-but-not-insane kind of guy. That's how his campaign will present him over the next few months. They'll downplay his four-year stint at the helm of the Club for Growth, a far-right organization that sought to evict Republicans it deemed not conservative enough. Instead, they'll talk in generic terms about his "common sense approach" to lower taxes and limited spending, etc., while trying to castigate Joe Sestak, retired Navy admiral, as some lilly-livered Marxist. Sadly, there's a pretty good shot this strategy will work, too, since the election will be far more about the national mood than the merits of the individual candidates.

The truth is, Toomey — at least during his tenure in Congress — had a pretty radical record. Quantifiably so: According to a statistical analysis by Pollster.com's Harry Enten using lawmakers' DW-Nominate scores (a pretty standard political science measurement of ideology, alongside rankings from groups like Americans for Democratic Action and the American Conservative Union), Toomey is way, way, way to the right of even Rick Santorum, whom this state so rightly removed from the Senate back in 2006.