GOP Senator Dick Lugar lost his primary today to a Tea Party candidate. Here are two conservative leaders in Indiana explaining why they were out to dump Lugar:
“Lugar is an honest and decent man, but he's voted wrong too many times,” says Bopp. “His approach is just wrong now. When Reagan was president, we could afford someone who approaches these issues in a moderate, bipartisan way. But now we have an administration out to destroy us, and we need a fighter. Here’s another way to say it. We’re in a march to socialism. Obama’s getting us there at 100 mph. If you endorse bipartisanship, you get us there at 50 mph.”
That, says Fettig, is a real shame. “Do we like the fact that the nation is polarized? No. But the fact of the matter is, it is. From the media’s perspective, it’s OK to be bipartisan if you're a Republican. But Democrats never reach across the aisle. Their idea of compromise is complete surrender. Well, we want a guy who doesn’t give in. Yes, politics is polarized. Until one side or the other wins, that's the way it needs to be.”I'd worked with Lugar when I was a Senate staffer in the late 80s, early 90s, when he and my old boss served on an arms control oversight group. He was a good man. Smart as hell, committed, not terribly partisan (partisan, yes; but terribly, no), and just an overall nice and decent guy, which is something you can't always say about members of Congress.
It's no wonder why he refused to woo the Teabaggers early on. He's not a nut. Which pretty much makes him persona non grata in today's Republican party.
