The American Spectator

(Photo Credit: Indianapolis Star)

Senator Dick Lugar’s Political Director, David Willkie, in response to an NRA-funded attack ad, sent out a scathing email to Senator Dick Lugar’s campaign supporters yesterday, claiming a tie rival Richard Mourdock frequently wears is a Confederate flag.

From the email:

Friend,

There’s wild elk in Indiana!

… and we’re not talking about a patriotic fraternal organization!

Wait… put down your gun.

That’s not an Indiana elk… (if so, it would be one of the first wild ones since the Civil War when guys sported Confederate neckties like Richard Mourdock’s).

No, this elk is part of a political TV ad… more of Mourdock’s out-of-state film footage, ominous music and political bullying by his D.C. special interest groups!

Mourdock has denied it is a Confederate flag, noting that it was purchased at a Republican state convention and is simply a pattern of stars and blue stripes.

Accusations of Confederate flag ties in Senate campaigns are not new. In the 1994 campaign in Virginia, then-candidate Oliver North accused Senator Charles Robb of wearing a similar tie. In that situation, it turned out to be a tie worn by the 1860s group of southern sympathizers in England known as the Anglo-Confederate Society.

Also, the far-left Media Matters raised the same accusation against Glenn Beck, who wore a tie on air similar to Mourdock’s.

Multiple times, Willkie refused to comment to TAS about the email. But he responded to Politico’s Dave Catanese by adding a childish accusation: “PS, We also hear that Mourdock dyes his hair. But you be the judge… lol”

Whatever one says about Mourdock’s fashion sense, such cheap accusations are surprising to hear coming from a long-serving Senator known for his foreign policy expertise and civility.

But when Mourdock is busy pointing out that Lugar voted to mandate greenhouse gas emissions, supported Medicare Part D, and endorsed both the auto and Wall Street bailouts, Lugar’s campaign is making it clear they will try anything to win the May 8 primary.