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The Spectacle Blog
Jim mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth highlighting Dick Lugar’s shrill parting statement. Though he says “I hope my opponent wins in November,” it doesn’t sound like he means it:
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.
This is not conducive to problem solving and governance. And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator.
It goes on in the same finger-wagging vein — the whole statement runs more that 1400 words. As the liberal journalist Evan McMorris-Santoro quips, he’s playing the role of Democratic surrogate. Apparently Lugar’s much-vaunted civility is a courtesy he extends only to his left; turning to his right, he becomes a churl. Good riddance; I’m sure he’ll do very well at the high-paying K Street job that likely awaits him.
View all comments (28) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
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yips| 5.9.12 @ 12:17AM
I thought 80 year old men just enjoyed the homestead (surely a multimillion dollar estate we duped and dumb taxpayers and countless oil sheiks from the Middle East have given him). The old coot needs to get acquainted with it before he passes soon.
I admire athletes who step down before they really must. They are the ones with smarts and grace to walk away before it becomes odd, awkward, unspoken, and a real nuisance (taking pay for very little "play.")
Why is it not so with "statesmen?"
What demon can live in a man to think that he's good enough at age 80 to do a very tough job at the 100% level -- on behalf of others, serving others with real integrity -- all the time for the next six years?
This baffles me. The hubris that is the same in a petulant 19 year old carries on unabated, in different more sinister forms, in the body of a man with 80.
Jeremiah Smirking| 5.9.12 @ 7:43AM
You're damn straight. The everyman looks forward to retirement and the hopeful relaxation it will afford. These schmoes are so addicted to people kissing their arse that they can't stand the possibility of having to do things for themselves, or have to live with themself.
WL| 5.9.12 @ 12:41AM
I hear you yips...and understand your sentiments...
However, you really need to go WAY BACK to some unknown time and location that we will never find out about....where they made the deal with the devil...
You see...these guys are considered elder statesman...NOT because the really are...BUT because they are bequeathed the opportunities and roles in the overall script...to play the PART of the elder statesman...
Elder statesman don't act like that...
PHONY Hack "Elder Statesman" like DICK LUGAR...DO.
Larry| 5.9.12 @ 12:42AM
Well said, John Tabin. Lugar has become nothing but a churl, who wanted to enjoy his perks and simply go along to get along, all the while failing to see what has been happening to the country.
The people of Indiana have done well tonight to retire this old coot.
WL| 5.9.12 @ 12:44AM
Essentially what I am saying is this....
Dick Lugar was never a statesman...we just got the propoganda about him being one. Even bills that are put forward and positive are SET UP for them...and in order to get that spot...they have to be on the other side (against US).
That's why when the Lugar's of the world get a challenge from the PEOPLE...all of the establishment Repubs and Dems...circle the wagons for them...
Tonight was a victory for the PEOPLE.
Occam's Tool| 5.9.12 @ 12:57AM
Good riddance. Let's put a Conservative in.
RJ| 5.9.12 @ 1:09AM
When you lose by more than 20 points, the graceful thing to do is congratulate the winner and walk off into the sunset. Lugar's defeat speech helps explain why he lost. We obviously need change and his lecture to the winner is that he needs to follow Lugar's "more of the same" approach to be successful. I don't know if Lugar will have a future as a lobbiest. There are fewer and fewer Rinos he can go to for goodies.
I bet Hatch will not sleep well tonight.
darcy| 5.9.12 @ 1:15AM
I am totally and completely disgusted by Lugar's ungracious remarks about Mourdock, his contemptuous framing of the man to whom he lost as a "partisan." Lugar hasn't a shred of discernment in his entire anatomy; if the Republican Party -- and Lugar himself -- had been more partisan, rather than less partisan, the country might have benefitted from actual OPPOSITION to the statist project rather than the victim of the power-sharing arrangement that Lugar and his ilk embraced for their own enrichment at the expense of not only the taxpayers' pocketbook but also of our freedoms.
I will remember Lugar as deeply flawed and pathetic. I thank the people of Indiana for recognizing it was time to put him out to pasture.
TWTR| 5.9.12 @ 4:15AM
darcy, well stated. Thank you.
Now -- will good Virginians do the same with former senator and former governor George Allen running for this year's open Virginia U.S. Senate seat?
What does a RINO smell like? Initials are G.A.....
These guys play, play, play and enrich themselves in millions while never solving anything, never reforming horrific legislative practices and aiding the burning of the nation down worse than what the Brits did to Washington, D.C. 200 years ago.
Jack in Wi.| 5.9.12 @ 5:57AM
May those old hacks Orrin Hatch, Tommy Thompson, and George Allen join him in forced and permanent retirement.
KDW| 5.9.12 @ 1:48AM
I happen to be one of the proud Hoosiers who
today voted to oust the RINO fossil. This is
a moment I have waited for 6 long years - I
actually ran to the polls in 2006 to vote against
Lugar in the general election only to find out
he was running unopposed. I guess patience
is truly a virtue.
It's actually sad to think that Lugar believes
what he has been doing for the last 36 years
has been 'responsible governance'. What part
of our $16 trillion debt would Lugar like to take
responsibility for?
WL| 5.9.12 @ 2:01AM
I have to jab you on that one KDW...in a friendly way....
If you had to find out at the "POLLS" that Lugar was un-opposed...you might had better start keeping up with what's going on...just a little bit closer!!!!!!!
Just in jest...In seriousness...Congrats on the victory tonight. I think this was important for us all...especially if Mourdock wins and is as successful as I think he could be.
TWTR| 5.9.12 @ 4:22AM
Thank you, KDW! I appreciate your perseverance over the past six years. Please keep it up! As someone posted on another blog article here late yesterday, this will be a long haul to overturn, undo what perverse politicians have done to destroy America in the last 40 years.
Thank you for being part of the good fight. Don't stop. Please!
(Keep an eye on what Evan Bayh might do -- please)
And -- if I may, please tell us what you really think of Senator Dan Coats. Thank you.
squalis| 5.9.12 @ 3:47AM
I predict an eventual endorsement of the Dem candidate.
PCP Smoker| 5.9.12 @ 6:22AM
Nothing new here. That's how RINOS, including Mitt Romney, think. It's their rightful position. The job of conservatives is to support them. Hoosiers, good job hunting one of Obama's favorite repubic.
TexasMom2012| 5.9.12 @ 6:26AM
I am just happy that it doesn't look like he can pull a Murkowski! No matter how ungracious his concession may be, as long as he doesn't run in the general at least he has listened to the voters... I just cannot believe that the man who ran against his predecessor for being in Washington too long (18 years) doesn't get the fact that he has been there TWICE as long (36 years) could possibly be a reason to make like a tree and LEAVE! What a MAROON! He has sounded like all the incumbents who think it is "their" seat and that they are entitled to it and all of the perks that go along with the seat. Wrong! And I am glad to see some of these dinosaurs sweat!
Mick Lee| 5.9.12 @ 6:35AM
"This is not conducive to problem solving and governance. And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator."
Typical "old line" Republican strategy: Give away at least half of your bargaining chips before you even get to the table.
cali| 5.9.12 @ 6:51AM
Well, he was obamas' mentor; now we'll see if obama returns his friendship by giving him a position, maybe a ambassador position in Russia. They did travel together there a couple of times.
Clint| 5.9.12 @ 7:14AM
The Tea Party Rebellion Steps On Lugar.
WL| 5.9.12 @ 10:08AM
Hey Genius Clint...why don't you go over to the Cruise announcement by Mr. Tyrell .... I started a "send Clint on the cruise" fundraiser and personally pledged a hundred bucks if the ASpec writers would allow you to be their guest of honor....
I checked back 10 minutes later....and what do you know...
They yanked the whole darned article right off the front page!!!!!!!
I even tried to appeal to their inner souls and said that your Mom probably wouldn't spot you the money!!! and still they were unmoved....
That advertisement went into File 13 in a blink of an eye!!!
Chuck| 5.9.12 @ 7:59AM
Lugar's defeat is a blow to the liberal GOP Establishment's Roe v Wade Preservation Society. But don't fret pro-abortionists, an all out effort to beat Mourdock will come about in the general election led by the Romney wing of the party, lest we forget Delaware and Nevada senate races in 2010.
Ops| 5.9.12 @ 9:29AM
Chuck, I believe you to be correct.
I'd really love to see raw data, empirical facts, and to know the machinations behind the scenes that we non RINO normal folks would never be shown or privy to hear. I believe that the GOP Senate people were scared stiff in 2009 that they could indeed take back a U.S. Senate majority in the November 2010 elections -- and a core group of GOP Senators, GOP HQ types, enablers, monied men, etc. purposely undermined several key campaigns (Alaska, Washington State, Nevada, California?, Colorado, Delaware) to make certain the GOP would stay the minority party in the U.S. Senate.
Anyone have some great, hard-hitting, truthful journalism on this that I can view? Please share links, dates, articles. I'd be grateful.
We love saying that Al Franken is that 60th vote, right? Well, what if ole Mitch McConnell has been doing his darndest for the last eight years to make sure he's not a majority leader?
It really is time to abandon the GOP.
Gold BC| 5.9.12 @ 12:37PM
In 1981 the GOP had a majority in the senate-53 seats. In 1987 the former senate majority leader Bob Dole was only too happy to over the reins of power to that pillar of bipartisanship George Mitchell. You are absolutely right the Republicans would prefer to stay in the shadows away from the attacking liberal press and picking up the legislative crumbs.
darcy| 5.9.12 @ 1:38PM
I think you are wrong on this one, although I appreciate your reasoning: a Senator Mourdock portends a more conservative Senate, and this cannot sit well with the establishment.
However, Mourdock, in his acceptance speech last night, stated that Sen. Cornyn (leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee) had called him to congratulate him and to tell him that the NRSC was fully committed to keeping the seat held by Lugar in Republican hands. Now, Cornyn leans right but has disappointed conservatives (me, for example) in a number of ways, so I know he is not conservative to the same extent as is Jim DeMint. So it appears that Mourdock will have a much larger base of Republican support and backing than say O'Donnell of Delaware had in the recent past.
Bob Miller| 5.9.12 @ 8:18AM
In contrast to Lugar's sour grapes, Mourdock's victory speech to his supporters included a gracious call to give Lugar a big hand for his years of service (which they did).
Mourdock had solid support from many local Republican officials. The Tea Party was a big part but not the only part of his support.
By the way, Indiana law prevent Lugar from running on another line now that he lost the party primary.
Crassus| 5.9.12 @ 9:50AM
Bye bye Lugar. Time to join Arlen Specter in the Old Senators Home. You stayed on the job a little bit too long.
Peter| 5.9.12 @ 11:11AM
"I'm sure he'll do very well at the high-paying K Street job that likely awaits him."
Wrong.
This old bird is headed to a nursing home.
randyinrocklin| 5.9.12 @ 1:18PM
waiting for Governor Mike Pence to be the rising star for conservatives. In fact, I think Romney should pick him as VP. That would certainly change my mind about voting for him. And now on to getting rid of Orrin Hatch.