Darron Cummings/AP Photo
Sen. Richard Lugar meeting with voters outside of a polling location in Greenwood, Indiana on Tuesday.
Outgoing Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar issued a remarkable statement after he was defeated in the GOP Primary Tuesday by Tea Party-endorsed challenger Richard Mourdock. He did not title it Reflections on the Revolution in the Republican Party, but he may as well have (and he did name-check Edmund Burke).
The entire statement is worth reading, but here are a few key graphs. Lugar on taking a political position — and then sticking with it in a campaign:
"I knew that I had cast recent votes that would be unpopular with some Republicans and that would be targeted by outside groups.
These included my votes for the TARP program, for government support of the auto industry, for the START Treaty, and for the confirmations of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan... It was apparent that these positions would be attacked in a Republican primary. But I believe that they were the right votes for the country, and I stand by them without regrets, as I have throughout the campaign.
And this point about the Republicans' favorite tax-raiser/compromiser, Ronald Reagan:
One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times. Certainly this was understood by President Reagan, who worked with Democrats frequently and showed flexibility that would be ridiculed today — from assenting to tax increases in the 1983 Social Security fix, to compromising on landmark tax reform legislation in 1986, to advancing arms control agreements in his second term.
Well said, Senator.
Leave a Comment:
Senator Lugar is the Last of a Dying Breed -- the Loyal Opposition. He worked for the good of the Country when it was needed, but voted with his party when required. Senator Bob Dole was another one. We are seeing the slow dismantlement of the Democratic Process, and the Demise of the United States -- we no longer work together, we divide and eliminate.
Dick Lugar stayed too long in the bubble that is Wahington, DC. He gave up his legal residence in Indiana, failed to go home to try to reconnect with the Indiana voters until it was too late, and became his own worse enemy, someone who believed the admiration of the leftist media for his "courageous" votes for Democrat Party causes, such as the populating of the Supreme Court with leftist oriented jurists, and his foreign policy positions during the Bush Administration that often mirrored those of the Democrat Party antiWar on terror Senators Harry Reid, Carl Levin, John Kerry, and Barrack Obama.
Tha man who beat him like a drum in the Republican Primary, winning by 20 points, is the current State Treasurer, who together with Governor Mitch Daniels has helped to turn the State of Indiana into a beacon of fiscal integrity with low unemployment and a growing economy. Tea Party support, yes. But also the support of a greater number of Republican's that came to the polls to vote for him, instead of Wasington DC resident Dick Lugar.