Regular readers know that I am a huge supporter of the Club for Growth, a PAC that hand-picks fiscal conservatives and backs them. The Club has been greatly successful, making a difference in several key races.

But now the conservative Wall Street Journal writes this:

The Club for Growth, a political action committee with a reputation for backing conservative challengers against liberal Republicans, endorsed Steve Laffey over incumbent Senator Lincoln Chafee in the Rhode Island Republican primary. Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Pat Toomey, the Club’s president, explained the main reasons for the endorsement. Mr. Chafee is among the most liberal Republicans in the Senate, wrote Mr. Toomey. He consistently opposes tax cuts, citing the growing fiscal deficit, but then votes to increase federal spending. By contrast, the Club sees Mr. Laffey as a Reagan conservative who will support making the Bush tax cuts permanent, cut wasteful spending, expand trade, reform insolvent entitlements and fix the tort system.

But if Mr. Laffey hopes to win the hearts of conservatives nationwide by unseating Senator Chafee, he’ll first have to explain a few things about his own record. As mayor of Cranston for the past three years, Mr. Laffey has increased taxes three times. The city now has one of the highest property tax rates in the state, and Mr. Laffey has said Cranston may “need” an additional tax hike in 2007. And while living in Tennessee in the 1990s, he gave money to Democratic senatorial candidates who ran against former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson and the current Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He even made a campaign contribution to Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

So far there has been no response by Club president Pat Toomey on the Club’s blog or in a letter to the editor.