# Richard Lugar loses Senate primary -- one less sane Republican in congress **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 9, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339 "2012-05-09T00:26:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/21 "2012-05-09T14:57:13Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’m pretty sure Mourdock will win in Indiana, it is a fairly red state. > > I’m just hoping Snowe and Collins are replaced by uber radical conservatives in their primaries. I don’t think they will win state wide elections in a place like Maine. Snowe is retiring, so she won’t be running in any primary. Ex-governor / political rock star, Angus King (I) is running for her seat. There was a Democrat, Rep. Pingree, who said she would run, but when King threw his hat in the ring, she decided to stay put in the House. Collins? Who knows? She’s been pretty safe as Olympia Jr. for the past several election cycles. But, I should point out, Maine is a lot more red (especially around the neck area) than a lot of people know. Portland is pretty much the only bastion of liberalism - and while the metro area essentially represents have the population of the state - the other half of the state still churns their own butter and fucks their sisters, so it’s kind of a crap-shoot either way. ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/22 "2012-05-09T15:16:30Z")
> [@bahia\_hombre](#): > > Maybe he runs as independent…and wins. Lugar can’t run as an independent this year. In Indiana once you’ve participated in a party primary you’re stuck with that primary’s decision. Lugar’ll retire. > [@CJJ](#): > > A lot of people want to lay Lugar’s loss at the feet of the Tea Partiers demanding a “real conservative”, and there is probably some truth to that. But let’s not forget: Lugar made powerful enemies in the banking industry last year when he voted against an amendment that would have blocked caps on credit card swipe fees, an amandment the banks favored. I think Lugar’s death knell sounded when he spoke out against the Republicans blocking the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, not with the banking industry. The Republican party was opposed to START 2 because Obama brokered it. Lugar pointed out that it increased inspections of nuclear stockpiles in Russia and saw the destruction of many nuclear weapons. It was idiotic to oppose it no matter who brokered the deal since it was a massive win not only for US/Russia relations but everyone who didn’t want a nuclear holocaust. He had to know as soon as he spoke the RINO police would be all over him next election. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/23 "2012-05-09T18:32:41Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Any chance of sanity in Mourdock? > > [http://archives.ontheissues.org/Social/Richard\_Mourdock\_Corporations.htm](http://archives.ontheissues.org/Social/Richard_Mourdock_Corporations.htm) Not to mention this: > **[Richard Mourdock responds to Dick Lugar: It'll be my way or the highway](https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/09/1090032/-Richard-Mourdock-responds-to-Dick-Lugar-It-ll-be-my-way-or-the-highway)** > > Indiana Republican Senate nominee Richard Mourdock responds to Senator Dick Lugar, whose concession statement warned that Mourdock's "rejectionist orthodoxy" and "unrelenting partisan mindset" would ... 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. […] ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/24 "2012-05-09T18:56:11Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > 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. […] It’s funny and snarky when Democratic pundits say that’s what Republicans mean by “bipartisan”. Not so much when actual Republicans say that’s what Republicans mean by “bipartisan”. Is he supposed to just come out and say it like that? I thought that was double-secret Republican political strategy… ---
**Author:** ![Winkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@Winkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winkie)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/25 "2012-05-09T22:11:59Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > [http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/indiana-tea-party-candidate-mourdock-challenges-sen-lugar-on-global-warming-and-united-nations/](http://netrightdaily.com/2012/05/indiana-tea-party-candidate-mourdock-challenges-sen-lugar-on-global-warming-and-united-nations/) > > > [@](#): > > > > Earlier the month in Washington D.C., Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a reception held for the Environmental Defense Fund that he viewed climate change as a potential national security threat. In reality, Panetta should be concerned about his own policies, Mourdock said. > > > > “The irony here is that our energy policy is in fact a threat to our national security,” he said. “We are basing our energy policy on the greatest hoax of all time, which is that mankind is changing the climate.” > > And he is supposed to know better. He has a Master’s degree in geology but he worked in the energy sector for more than 30 years. > > So no, when I see people like this falling for stupid conspiracy theories, I have to suspect their decision making abilities. Re: climate change, denial is the official line of the State of Indiana under Governor Mitch Daniels (R) - once you hear it from the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, it almost doesn’t even register when the State Treasurer / Republican nominee for US Senate says it. For the record, I am a Democrat in Indiana who has voted for Lugar in the past, and voted in the Republican primary yesterday specifically to vote for him again. He did a heck of a lot of work to do what was right for the nation, not just for his party. I’m very sad that compromise for the good of the country as a whole is apparently evil. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/26 "2012-05-09T23:19:35Z")
Meh. For all this blather, much of it from him, about being a reasonable moderate, sane and able to work with the other party, Lugar was just as reliable a filibuster vote as anyone else in the caucus. He had changed along with the party to whom he still owes his highest loyalty, not his country. It may have been true in the pre-Gingrichization years, but it hadn’t been anymore. There is now a real chance for a progressive vote from that seat. This is a good thing for the country, despite immediate appearances. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/27 "2012-05-09T23:42:26Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Another RINO bites the dust! It’s going to be awfully lonely once you’ve driven everyone out of the party I once voted for. As I said elsewhere, Politics is Compromise. When you refuse to compromise and refuse to accept anything less than your own demands, demands that you know are not acceptable to the majority (or worse, convince yourself that the majority actually want despite the evidence), you marginalize yourself and lose all power. Sooner or later, the people who still have some shred of sanity and some sense of wanting to get things done, or are TPINO’s are going to start bailing on you, because they’re going to see that the Tea Party is all rage and impotence. Then maybe the Republicans will stop being the Party of the Ignorant and the Insane and return to principles I want to vote for. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/28 "2012-05-10T01:01:19Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > [NY Times story here](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/us/politics/senator-in-a-primary-fight-for-his-political-life.html?_r=1&hp). The Tea Party has kicked another moderate to the street. I don’t know if the new guy is so kooky that he will give Dems a reasonable shot at taking the seat in the general. This is even worse than when they tried to replace Joe Lieberman with Ned Lamont. Damn Tea Partiers. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/29 "2012-05-10T01:30:48Z")
> [@furt](#): > > This is even worse than when they tried to replace Joe Lieberman with Ned Lamont. Damn Tea Partiers. Except that the Republican TP candidates won’t have hordes of Democrats ignoring their own candidate and voting for that Republican in the general. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/30 "2012-05-10T04:47:51Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Meh. For all this blather, much of it from him, about being a reasonable moderate, sane and able to work with the other party, Lugar was just as reliable a filibuster vote as anyone else in the caucus. He had changed along with the party to whom he still owes his highest loyalty, not his country. It may have been true in the pre-Gingrichization years, but it hadn’t been anymore. > > There is now a real chance for a progressive vote from that seat. This is a good thing for the country, despite immediate appearances. True. And Lugar wasn’t moderate at all, except in foreign policy where he would be better characterized as “Serious and informed”. > [@CJJ](#): > > A lot of people want to lay Lugar’s loss at the feet of the Tea Partiers demanding a “real conservative”, and there is probably some truth to that. But let’s not forget: Lugar made powerful enemies in the banking industry last year when he voted against an amendment that would have blocked caps on credit card swipe fees, an amendment the banks favored. If the GOP wasn’t so embedded in deep crazy, the banksters couldn’t topple him. As always monied interests and the loons have a symbiotic relationship within the Republican Party: strength in the latter aids the former. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/31 "2012-05-10T05:21:52Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > As always monied interests and the loons have a symbiotic relationship within the Republican Party: strength in the latter aids the former. But not vice-versa. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/32 "2012-05-10T14:45:44Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I don’t really understand Indiana politics sometimes. In 2004 Bush won Indiana 1.5 million votes to 1 million for Kerry. In 2008 it was about a 1.3 million split for each candidate. > > I have no idea how it happened, or how 10% of the electorate turned away from the GOP and went dem in 2008. But I think the pendulum has swung back. A tea party candidate Dan Coats was elected to replace Evan Bayh after he retired, it was 55/40 with another 5% going to the libertarian. Remember that Northwestern Indiana shares a border with Illinois and is part of the greater Chicago metropolitan area. That may help account for some of the Obama support in 2008. I don’t remember McCain really fighting hard in Indiana in 2008 either. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/33 "2012-05-10T15:39:57Z")
When Lugar went into the Senate he was seen as a rock-ribbed conservative. He and guys like Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch were seen as conservative as they get. Now Lugar and Hatch are being run out of their own party. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/34 "2012-05-10T15:47:21Z")
Murdock to Lugar: “Hoosier Daddy?” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/35 "2012-05-10T16:55:20Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > [NY Times story here](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/us/politics/senator-in-a-primary-fight-for-his-political-life.html?_r=1&hp). The Tea Party has kicked another moderate to the street. I don’t know if the new guy is so kooky that he will give Dems a reasonable shot at taking the seat in the general. 1. Richard Lugar wasn’t a moderate. 2. Remember all those party-line votes we’ve had over the past few years? Yeah, Lugar voted the party line along with everyone else. Hell, we’ve just recently [had](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00087) a [number](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00086) [of](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00084) [votes](http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00082) on the Senate floor where there were a number of GOP defectors - but Lugar wasn’t among them. Lugar would talk sanely enough to impress the centrist pundits. But he didn’t vote much different from the wingnuts. 1. Quite frankly, I’d rather have a GOP Senator who is clearly a nutcase than one who has people convinced of his sanity and occasional moderation, but who votes with the wingnuts 99% of the time. I’d be all for having _actual_ reasonable Republicans, but what we have instead is pretend ones who vote like wingnuts. And since that’s the case, I’d rather have actual wingnuts, because they aren’t trying to fool anyone. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/36 "2012-05-10T17:12:32Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > When Lugar went into the Senate he was seen as a rock-ribbed conservative. He and guys like Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch were seen as conservative as they get. Now Lugar and Hatch are being run out of their own party. And, the political center-of-gravity of the **country** has not shifted rightward in that time – only that of the GOP. Under those circumstances, there is only so far further rightward the GOP can go and survive. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/37 "2012-05-10T22:32:08Z")
I used to really like Dick Lugar. I wanted him to win the Presidency in 1996. But he never stood up to the hardline sectarian tax slasher faction (or “GOP leadership”), certainly not after Obama became President (which is weird, because he and Obama were supposedly friends) so I just gave up on him. Sucks to be a milquetoast, yes? Maybe if he’d showed some spine he’d have kept his seat. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/38 "2012-05-10T22:37:10Z")
In some respects, right now is the WWII of the Culture Wars. WWII was the last gasp of European rivalry, Millenia of nations fighting, trying to grab up other, less developed parts of the world just to be seen as bigger powers among each other, etc. When it ended, European rivalries were exhausted and they became pawns of larger powers. Now for the most part, even that is over. In 50 years, we’ve lost a lot of baggage. Women, Native Americans, Gays, Blacks all have made major strides towards true equality. We professed our intent to treat all as equals, to honor all beliefs, to support those who need it, to level the playing field for everyone. The far right is on the losing side in that culture war, and they’re making one last, desperate push to turn back the tide of History. To go back to when Women, Native Americans and Blacks were inferior citizens and “knew their place”. When we didn’t have to respect all them strange and stupid foreign religions and wierdo cults. In some respects to a idealized (and never existed) age when government stayed out of everyone’s business and everything JUST WORKED. It isn’t going to work. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/39 "2012-05-11T03:45:56Z")
I think part of it isn’t ideological. Lugar pissed people off with his house. And he ran kind of a crappy campaign. He focused more on his national record than on Indiana and the things that mattered to Indianans. Plus, the man is 80. I think there were a lot of people who just thought he was too old. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339/40 "2012-05-11T04:16:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Plus, the man is 80. It’s the U.S. Senate. He’s just a kid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-lugar-loses-senate-primary-one-less-sane-republican-in-congress/621339.md?page=3)