Associated Press
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) isn't the first mainstream Republican to be driven from office by a right-wing primary challenger, but his primary defeat last night is arguably the most shocking -- and says the most about the radicalization of today's Republican Party.
When Utah Sen. Robert Bennett was rejected by his party, he could at least blame the process. When Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was discarded, we could point to his relative moderation by contemporary GOP standards.
With Dick Lugar, it's ... different.
Lugar is a giant -- a veritable legend -- of Indiana politics, having been a popular mayor of Indianapolis and a successful senator who never faced a serious challenge before this year. On Capitol Hill, Lugar developed a reputation as a consistent conservative, generally on the right on nearly every issue (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 77%), but who nevertheless conducted himself with class and dignity -- a senator who enjoyed universal respect, especially on international affairs, where his stature is largely unrivaled.
The senator has been a quiet, understated leader. He lost by 20 points.
Lugar had been encouraged to do as Orrin Hatch had done -- abandon sensible positions, stop working with anyone with even slightly different positions, and pander shamelessly to the most extreme contingencies within his party. But Lugar didn't want to become a right-wing caricature, because after so many years of public service, he didn't feel like he had to. Hoosiers knew him and trusted him; his party and his state wouldn't cast him aside easily.
Did I mention he lost by 20 points?
Former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.) said a while back, "If Dick Lugar, having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption."
Well, guess what. Lugar not only faced a serious challenger, he was also humiliated by his own party -- which suggests the Republican Party probably is "beyond redemption." The purity campaign, intended to drive independent thought and even hints of moderation from the GOP altogether, continues, and as of last night in Indiana, it's working.
Who beat him? State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who, naturally, challenged Lugar from the right. Mourdock is a favorite of right-wing groups like Club for Growth, and has staked out extreme positions, including his recent boast that bipartisanship is "wrong" and that he wouldn't intend to work with Democrats on any issue.
GOP Hoosiers swooned, preferring Mourdock's hard-line inflexibility to Lugar's statesmanship. As Dana Milbank recently said of this primary:
On one side is a man who has made it his life's work to build a cross-aisle consensus for keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states. On the other side is a man who mocks his opponent for such efforts and who talks more about fighting Democrats than fighting America's enemies.
For years Dick Lugar has been the leading Senate Republican on foreign policy, shaping post-Cold War strategy, securing sanctions to end South African apartheid and bringing democracy to the Philippines, among other things. His signature achievement, drafted with Democrat Sam Nunn, was the 1992 Nunn-Lugar Act, which has disarmed thousands of Soviet nuclear warheads once aimed at the United States.
Enter Richard Mourdock, a tea party hothead attempting to defeat Lugar in the GOP primary. A cornerstone of his effort to oust Lugar is the six-term senator's bad habit of bipartisanship -- never mind that Lugar's bipartisanship was in the service of protecting millions of Americans from nuclear, chemical and biological terrorism.
As Lugar himself said in a statement last night, "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."
As for what happens now, Mourdock will face Rep. Joe Donnelly (D), a Blue Dog Democrat, who, all of a sudden, has a shot at winning a U.S. Senate seat. Opinions vary on Donnelly's chances, but one thing is for sure: had Lugar won yesterday, he'd be a lock to win re-election statewide. With Mourdock's primary success, what was an easy race for the GOP has become a more competitive contest.
As for what happens to the "beyond redemption" Republican Party, every incumbent on Capitol Hill has received the right-wing threat anew: toe a far-right line and refuse to compromise or prepare to be replaced. Full stop. The radicalized party won't quit until it's purged every hint of independence from its ranks.
The Mann/Ornstein thesis tells us the extremism that's come to define the contemporary GOP is principally responsible for the breakdown of American governance. Yesterday's primary sends an unmistakable signal: Republicans only intend to make matters worse.
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Agree with your thesis, but 30 years! and he wanted six more! What is with these guys like Inouye, McCain, Hatch, etc.--do believe they are God's gift to us or something? They've not exerted a benign influence in the Senate, or furthered the national conversation recently in any way. These past few years have turned me very anti-incumbent.
Unfortunately, the worse candidate won here. The Tea Party will drive itself off the cliff eventually. That kind of nihilistic dogma cannot stand for long. Hopefully they won't take the rest of us with them.
Name calling is always fun.
I used to do it as a kid.
Wow. Lugar's loss has brought me full circle thinking that the Tea Party's "rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition" was a temporary carnival sideshow on the US political stage. It is now a on a dangerous and frightening rightward path with a social issue dominance that could significantly weaken the US position on the world stage in math, science, and technology, and education (don't get me started on their attempts to rewrite history!) as a whole. Should the Democrats loose both the White House and Congress this year it will be a watershed moment in US politics for decades to come rivaling only Monica Lewinski's place in history and the cascading impact she had in our countries political future.
I'm pleased with the chances for a Democratic candidate taking that seat, but I loved Sen. Lugar. Some of you may have forgotten that when Lugar ran for President, the GOP asked him to sign an anti-gay pledge. Lugar refused to sign it.
Sorry Steve! You need to expand your information sources to outside of the beltway.
Let me list for you the number of ways that this posting is full of sh!t...
1) It was not the teabaggers alone who 'drove' Lugar from office. As a progressive, I voted yesterday in the repuknican primary for the sole purpose of voting against Lugar.
2) ...who nevertheless conducted himself with class and dignity -- a senator who enjoyed universal respect... Past (way past) tense! Lugar has moved steadily to the reich since Obama was elected and has shown that he swallowed the teabagger kool-aid, just not enough of it for the wack-jobs. Since Obama was elected, Lugar has voted consistently with the demands of Mitch McConnell; including voting against bills he would have been a main proponent of 4 years ago.
3) But Lugar didn't want to become a right-wing caricature, because after so many years of public service, he didn't feel like he had to. Dick Lugar did become a reich-wing caricature of himself and he did it deliberately because he knew that he had to for the wack-job wing of the repuke party.
4) Hoosiers knew him and trusted him until Obama was elected and he became one of the wack-jobs.
5) ...he was also humiliated by his own party with the deliberate help of many democrats!
Dick Lugar forfeited any right to respect by his words and actions since Obama was elected. His early campaign was heavy on nasty ads condemning Obama. His later campaign was extremely nasty ads aimed at the character of Mourdock.
I have no evidence of the number of progressives and democrats who got repuke ballots for the sole purpose of "diselecting" Lugar, but I suspect that it was a significant percentage of the margin for Mourdock.
As a progressive who dispises the Indiana state dumbocrap party (lack of) leadership, the DLC/DINO running against Mourdock has a better chance against the Crazy Teabagger than against Lugar, but will probably lose. As ususal, the candidate of the dumbocrap state party leaders would be considered a right leaning republican 20 years ago.
As a progressive, I believe that even if the Teabagger wins, it is better long run for the crazies to get fully exposed.
For anyone who watches Game of Thrones, I thought the perfect metaphor for this was Theon (ineptly) removing Ser Rodrik's head in the last episode. Ser Rodrik's last words, "God help you Theon Greyjoy. Now you are truly lost." Theon = crazy tea party radicals; Ser Rodrik = GOP old guard.
Murdoch's response:
CHUCK TODD: You have said that there needs to be more partisanship in Washington. How do you square that with being a legislator?
RICHARD MOURDOCK: Well, what I've said is that I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view. [...] Bipartisanship means they have to come our way [...] To me, the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else with a microphone or in front of a camera. [...] Even those Republicans who more often than not vote the right way aren't coming back into their states or their districts and getting in front of the unfriendly crowds and unfriendly microphones to make the point as to why our point of view is good. [...] I feel I can defend the purpose of conservatism, and more Republicans should be doing it just as I want to.
And one of Mourdock's primary goals is abolishing the EPA!
So what are the chances that Lugar will run as an independent? Sure would make the race interesting!
Zero! or less...
Way to perform to expectations, Indiana. I just knew you wouldn't disappoint. We left in the 70s never to return, because you were too socially repressive. All in all, it seems little has changed. Of all the life decisions we've made then and since, we still agree that one ranks as the best by far. From my perspective, you've done Senator Lugar a great favor, and deserve the poor substitute that you've purchased. Luck with that....
Bongoman--Puh-leeze, willya quit with the wishful thinking? This IS the way the Cons want to play. There are no more Republicans. No more Neoconservatives. Only the hardcore Neanderthal NeoCONS who want nothing more than the conquest of our nation from within. Unfortunately they had baby after baby all through the 90s--6 tp 8 per family--and now--thanks to the religiosity of them all, among other things--there are QUITE A LOT OF THEM.
First it was the WAR ON WOMEN--make choice (to have a baby, or NOT) ILLEGAL. This would--if enacted EVERYWHERE, which IS what they're after---make it impossible for any of THEIR women to exercise choice. As in:
First they came for the women...
Next, they came for the rest of us.
And, to achieve this, they'll try anything they can. From rigging their voting machines (like they did in Franklin County Ohio in 2004--when 1200 registered Democrats who exited the polls telling the poll watchers that they'd voted for John Kerry, somehow ended up having 'voted Republican'-- to the outright theft of hundreds of thousands of votes in the 2000 elections--(damn, you just can't TRUST these pesky women to NOT vote their New Party's Interests!) this MINORITY of Americans has got the Presidency AND the Senate, now in their grasp.
They are relentless and MUST BE STOPPED, otherwise our great once-free country, now in the process of being conquered state-by-state, will be America in name only.
As in many states, for women, it now is just that.
Who will save us? The Latino community, who know full well that a Republican sweep in November will not only NOT serve any interests that they have in America--but will send many of them back to Mexico in huge droves? Maybe. The American People, many of whom can't see past their noses? Yeah, the KIDS, maybe--the very NEXT group that the Republicans are attempting to disenfranchise, who cost them John McCain & Sarah Palin, and brought America its FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT? For sure, THEY'RE next in line for targeting, since they're "too young to know how to vote correctly"!!! The new ILLEGAL Voter ID laws, that Eric Holder's targeting with consecutive successes, but that the Republican Murdoch-operated media is FORBIDDEN TO MENTION at all?
Bongoman. Just because the Republicans are playing Nazi Hardball, is NO GUARANTEE that they WON'T SUCCEED. IMHO, the ONLY thing that will keep America America for very much longer, is the rage by women, causing them to vote in the same gigantic numbers that the kids did, in 2008. Absent the kids, women are our only hope in 2012, that America DOES NOT sink into the same fascist hole that gobbled up Germany, after the First Great Depression.
So much for the "extreme edge" that you identify as becoming "more brittle, less flexible, and crumbling little by little"---this next election, targeting the Senate (that I KNOW nobody's much thinking about) as well as our President--will soon make that 'edge' that you talk about, the center of this country, as well as its end.
This is how the Republican Party is going to follow its leader, Grover Norquist. By proving his theory that government doesn't work by sending in saboteur after saboteur to break it.
The News Media contributes to this problem by continuing to grossly misrepresent reality when they follow a comment about "The Far Right" with a comment about "The Far Left." What “Far Left?” I can't decide whether they are just ignorant and fail to understand what those terms mean, or maybe are intentionally trying to create the misimpression there actually IS an active Far Left in America. There is virtually no "Far Left," perhaps with the exception of Bernie Sanders, bless his principled soul, and maybe a few members of the Progressive Caucus. Liberals, certainly NOT Far Left, included Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Edward Kennedy. Among the further left politicians were Robert La Follete (a Republican), F.D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. It’s worth knowing what those terms mean if you are going to use them. Most of today's Democrats have views similar in many respects to Republicans Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lincoln Chafee, Jim Jeffords, Arlen Specter, Jacob Javits, Lowell Weicker, with a handful of exceptions who truly represent the liberal 25% of the Democratic Party. Really. Newsies, please tell me you are just poorly informed and have failed to take the time to find out what “The Far Left” means. I don't want to believe you are intentionally deceiving the American people. I’d rather think it is some mistaken sense of false “fairness” combined with obliviousness to reality.
I think Michael Tomasky of The Daily Beast said it best. "The natural impulse is to feel sorry for Lugar, but I won't be attending the pity party. Lugar and other republican senators should have spoken out long ago about the extremism that has overtaken their party, and the way it is asphyxiating a system of government that wasn't designed to withstand such assaults." Perfectly stated Mr. Tomasky
This is how the GOP plans on winning - engage the base (right wing extremists) to come out and vote. And they will - which only shows how vital it is that moderate republicans and independents vote as well. Mr/Ms Comfortable, whilst you are out doing something else instead of voting, other people are deciding your fate.
Ironically, Lugar's loss may well be the Democrat Party's win...if only everyone would vote, not just the extreme right...
And history shows that, when the economy is doing badly, people get very judgy about each other. Once the depression hit, hemlines went down. You can see today that the people who 6 years ago didn't give a damn about internet issues or gayness or The Rapture are now out in full. Scary...
I want to know how the vote tallies compare to election polling. Do the votes cast reflect how people say they voted? Or are we seeing the continuation of vote manipulation a la 2004? Rachel, this is worth digging into.
Why am I reminded of the old Bill Murry film, Groundhog Day? How many more elelctions do we have to suffer the ill effects of Tea Baggers until we can restore honor and justice to our political system? Even I have broken far left of where I used to be, a good Swedish, conservative Democrat from Minnesota, who looked carefully over an entire ballot before voting, because to vote a straight ticket did not insure that you picked the best candidate. Now I live in Arizona and vote straight Democrat.. anybody but a Repug because this is the "Papers, please" state and redder than red and STUPID with a gutted education and health system that is preposterous as a "service" to the citizens. There is no one to save us and the red "stain" seems to be spreading to other states with the same results! There is hardly a Republican in the working middle class who does not want the help of the rich and corporate to pay their FAIR SHARE, nor is the status of gays and women a top priority for them. Yet, they will vote Republican in November and will watch, with the rest of us, as all the working class priorities are put aside for concerns of the rich and corporate and they will wonder HOW all this happened. We HAVE no government.. we have 2 classes of people arguing over the color of the grass! Government is all but gone.. what we have left is the best that MONEY can buy!!
He lost because he was 80 years old and believed he would live forever. The voters had a firmer grip on reality and chose the younger man. A moderate Republican challenger would have won for that reason, although "moderate Republican" probably describes a null class.
Very frightening. I just don't understand why people in the 99% are duped into voting for people who obviously have no thought as to the greater good for all. Dems have got to get the vote out or every one of us will be economically and idealistically enslaved to the 1 percent. As for me, I live in Pennsylvania whose governor curtailed funding for low cost health insurance, instead choosing to use those funds for "business development." He's cut education funding and now is proposing MORE tax cuts for businesses. Businesses that have not increased jobs, just their bottom line.
While Lugar's defeat is causing concern, the loss that will convince me that the Republican Party is "beyond redemption" is Orrin Hatch's. If they vote someone in who is more conservative than Hatch, it's time to run for the hills!
It is actually even worse than it looks. Yes, he lost by 20 points. It would have been worse except that many Democrats, me included, crossed over during the primary specifically to vote for Richard Lugar. He has been MY SENATOR all of my adult life. I respect and trust the man, although I don't agree with everything he has ever done. I have always admired his leadership and willingness to work for the American people.
AMEN!!! Exactly what I have been thinking!
The Republicans are fascists.
When I heard Lugar got voted out last night, I turned to my mom and said, "we're screwed." Did anyone notice how people started hating Lugar when the issue of residency came up? If he's been in Washington D.C. for 9 months out of the year for 35 years, how does anyone expect him to live here?
And this who Tea Party Human Evolution. I'm a Christian and believe in Genesis, but I am also taking classes to be an anthropologist. If he gets all the way, will that make my future occupation illegal??? Keeping in mind of course anthropology is mostly about other cultures, forensics, archaeology, etc. and not all about evolution.
To watch the continued self-marginalization of the Republican Party is quite delightful... But I am tempted to keep my advice to myself, as it is best not to interrupt when your opponent is making your argument for you... Having painted themselves into a tight corner the GOP now has little choice, they can insist that it isn't a corner, what Romney seems to be doing which is to flat out lie or they can pretend to have intended this all along, which is the tactic of the Tea Party, never compromise and never apologize, it's a 'sign of weakness...', dontcha know... We like it here! It's nice in the tight corner, fewer options means less stress! C'mon over the weather's fine!
It is my firm belief that 2010 was an aberation, a backlash that was imminently predictable by anyone over the age of 50 who has any wanning memories of Nixon and the Southern Strategy. It is, at its core, about intolerance and fear of change, it is about who we are and who we will become in this brave new 21st century. It is about a battle that has to be fought each generation, as we move three steps forward and two steps back... I was a child of the last century, and a student of its history. I am ever mindful that our Republic depends on the honor and the fidelity of its citizens, I have faith, as I know it, in our Constitution and the institutions we have built over more than two centuries of trail and error, three steps forward and two steps back...
Gregg Johnson
The Cosmic Cowboy Ranch
How do we bridge this devide? That is the question. We can't fault people for their beliefs however misgided we believe they are. They think about us in exactly the same way we think of them. So, how do we bridge this devide? That is the question.
I have lately been spending some time actually discussing the issues with some of them... LOL... You're absolutely right about our mutual exclusive view of each other... But there are ways to humanize the outlook, to first let them see, and indeed let ourselves be seen, first as people and not as advocates.
But it really is a steep hill to climb and it can be seen as more difficult for us to prevail if only because we base our opinions on logic and reason and our opponents largely on faith or superstition, ultimately they can always insist they live in the tight corner because it is where God intended for them to live, in other words our logic is superfluous and unheeded.
So it takes longer... Hearts are harder to change than are minds... Call it the Cheney Factor, when you love a daughter and can see the person before you see the "gay" person your heart changes, making your mind much easier to change as well...
Gregg Johnson
The Cosmic Cowboy Ranch