Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha is in such deep trouble that for the first time in anyone’s memory, there are two Republicans facing off for the right to carry the GOP banner against him next year in Pennsylvania.

One is William Russell, (USA-Ret.), who took 42 percent of the vote against Murtha last year — despite raising and spending more than $3 million.

The new candidate is Tim Burns, who shared with me the first of a planned series of Web videos his campaign will be releasing in the coming months, leading up to the May 18 GOP primary.

Is Rep. John P. "The P is for Power" Murtha about to become the new Tom DeLay?

He will if Rep. Pete Sessions and the National Republican Congressional Committee have anything to say about it.

DeLay, of course, became the face of Republican congressional corruption in the 2006 cycle.

Though DeLay himself has never been convicted of anything -- and continues to maintain his innocence as federal and state prosecutions against him move forward at a glacial pace -- several of his former aides and lobbying allies pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying corruption scandal.

"It's a wonderful country, this America. It's called a secret ballot," former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said Thursday -- as he refused to pledge his support to former Congressman Pat Toomey over recent Republican-turned-Democratic incumbent Arlen Specter for his homestate's 2010 Senate race.

Ridge's comment came in response to this question posed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "If you had to vote between Toomey, the conservative Republican, or Specter, the ex-Republican, who would you vote for?"

With his refusal, Tom Ridge made clear that he really is through with electoral politics -- because he'll never, ever earn the support of conservative Republicans again.

Sadly, I wish I could say Ridge's refusal to back Toomey is inexplicable.

But it's not.

With former Governor Tom Ridge's announcement that he will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U. S. Senate in Pennsylvania next year, the Keystone State's playing field has shifted again.

About which, some thoughts:

First, props, please, to Pat Toomey's nascent Senate campaign.

Beginning earlier this week, opposition research began to show up in various conservative media outlets, all of which was aimed at making Ridge and his allies understand that a race against Toomey for the GOP nomination wouldn't be the cakewalk some recruiters and/or supporters were no doubt telling him it would be.

With speculation ramping up that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge may decide within the next few weeks to enter the primary for the GOP Senate nomination -- and the right to take on party-switching Arlen Specter -- you can expect conservative supporters of former Rep. Pat Toomey will begin working to frame the debate as conservative Toomey vs. liberal Ridge.

The first shots have been fired: National Review's David Freddoso takes a quick look at Ridge's record as a congressman (1983-95), and finds it worrisome on a number of fronts to conservatives:

While in Congress, writes Freddoso, Ridge "voted to expand welfare eligibility (1984), to fund abortions with public money, and in favor of the fairness doctrine (in 1987)."

Contrary to the conventional wisdom -- and the hopes of former Congressman Pat Toomey -- the defection of Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party last week wasn't the end of the Republican primary contest in Pennsylvania.

In fact, it was only the beginning.

A new poll out today shows why -- and it shows that, more than anything else, what Toomey needs is another poll.

This morning, with a Tweet, an appearance on Allentown, PA talk radio host Bobby Gunther Walsh's show, and later with a web video, former Congressman Pat Toomey made it official: He's a candidate for the United States Senate.

To get there, he's going to have to climb over the body of a fellow Republican, five-term incumbent Arlen Specter.

Toomey's choice of April 15 as the official start of his campaign is deliberate, as any tax filing procrastinator can figure out, and he's launching the campaign with gusto -- interviews with David Freddoso at National Review Online and John McCormack at The Weekly Standard, a midday pop on FOX News Channel to talk about his campaign, and appearances on local electronic media throughout Pennsylvania.

The 2010 re-election campaign of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has paid to air $100,000 worth of attack ads against Pat Toomey -- a former Republican congressman and current president of the conservative Club for Growth, who six years ago challenged Specter in a GOP primary and now has indicated he's ready for a rematch.

If you know of a precedent for going on the attack that way against someone who isn't in the race yet, let me know, because I don't know of one.

The nascent Toomey camp responded fast and hard, dismissing Specter's charges as false, and getting corroboration from the neutrals at FactCheck.org that Specter's ads were inaccurate.