Claude Rains’ Captain Renault would be shocked, shocked to hear this.

The political arm of The Club for Growth, the conservative group that promotes cutting taxes and federal spending, is endorsing its former president, Pennsylvania Republican Patrick J. Toomey, who left the organization just this week to announce a Senate primary campaign against Republican incumbent Arlen Specter.

The endorsement by the Club’s PAC was announced by Toomey’s chosen successor, former Indiana Rep. Chris Chocola, who lauded Toomey’s “tenacious ability to stand up to anybody in Washington, even if it was his own party’s leadership, if they sought to infringe peoples’ economic liberty.”