Sore Lugar

[saveliberty]

Wall Street Journal:

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• Updated May 9, 2012, 3:32 p.m. ET
  

Sore Lugar

 

For a "statesman," he's sure acting childish.

 

By JAMES TARANTO

 

When Richard Mourdock, Indiana's state treasurer, defeated six-term incumbent Dick Lugar in yesterday's Republican Senate primary, he sent out a graceful email to supporters: "When I began my campaign for U.S. Senate in 2011, I started it in a unique way--asking for a round of applause for Dick Lugar. Senator Dick Lugar has served Indiana with distinction for 35 years of his life, and we are grateful. Let's start the General Election in the same way we started the Primary--by honoring someone that we all owe a lot to--our Senator."

 

Here's an excerpt of Lugar's epic 1,400-word concession statement:

 

I hope my opponent wins in November to help give my friend Mitch McConnell a majority.

 

If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer to the inevitable roadblocks he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook. He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it.

[RandyM]

How snarky. Glad he's gone.

[clearvision]

The press is sure making this out to be just awful.... LA Times

Days before Christmas 2010, Congress was in a foul mood. Republicans had just swept the midterm elections, but Democrats were intent on finishing the year with a landmark lame-duck session on President Obama's top priorities.

 

 

One measure, a revamped nuclear nonproliferation treaty with Russia, faced Republican opposition and an uncertain fate. Key GOP leaders opposed it.

 

But Sen.Richard G. Lugarof Indiana, the party's elder statesman on foreign policy issues, was in favor. His stature helped deliver enough GOP votes to provide the supermajority needed for approval, and that Congress finished as one of the most productive in a generation.

 

Lugar's defeat in this week's GOP primary election to Richard Mourdock, a tea-party-backed conservative, essentially brings to a close an age of quiet diplomacy in American politics that no longer appears to have much currency on Capitol Hill.

[RandyM]

essentially brings to a close an age of quiet diplomacy in American politics

 

What a bunch of numbnuts over at the LA Times. It essentially boots a Democrat who's been hiding in Republican clothing.

[Valin]

Why is partisanship always such a dirty word (at least when practiced by Republicans/Conservatives)?

 

 

Given at their core both parties today have very different views on the nature size scoop of government, why should we expect that there should be less partisanship.

[Valin]

essentially brings to a close an age of quiet diplomacy in American politics

 

What a bunch of numbnuts over at the LA Times. It essentially boots a Democrat who's been hiding in Republican clothing.

 

I would not call him that. I'd call him a bitter old man, who still doesn't understand what happened to him, and why he lost. Which may explain why he lost. In his time he has done some very good things, but as the old saying goes...That was then...this is now. One thing you can be sure of a message was sent with this vote, the question is was it received.

[Evad]

" the question is was it received. "

 

I suspect not. The GOP-e is incapable of assessing what is happening and refuses to believe that people are just fed up with the bull s^#@...on both sides. I suspect when the last one is left standing, then and only then will the figg'r it out.

[Valin]

" the question is was it received. "

 

I suspect not. The GOP-e is incapable of assessing what is happening and refuses to believe that people are just fed up with the bull s^#@...on both sides. I suspect when the last one is left standing, then and only then will the figg'r it out.

 

The thing is this is a fight going on since (at least) the Goldwater campaign.

[Evad]

" the question is was it received. "

 

I suspect not. The GOP-e is incapable of assessing what is happening and refuses to believe that people are just fed up with the bull s^#@...on both sides. I suspect when the last one is left standing, then and only then will the figg'r it out.

 

The thing is this is a fight going on since (at least) the Goldwater campaign.

 

True, and it has escalated out of control in the wrong direction ever since. The ONLY blip in the screen was Reagan.

 

Now, for the first time in decades there is actually a movement that is serious about turning it around....The TEA Party.

 

We'll see......

[Valin]

@Evad

 

The problem is we on the right are not really all that interested in politics, we just want the bastards to leave us alone. So we have trouble understanding the war is never really over, so after a victory we go home. Now you could be right, that the tipping point has been reached, and the base of the party is chock full of people who are not happy campers. Hence we still see Romney telling us he's really severely conservative.

 

 

Will the Tea Party really have a long term effect on the party? Hope so, ask me in ten years.

[Evad]

Sore Lugarman