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Subscribe to RSSIndiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock breaks down his defeat of six-term Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind.
An epic good-bye letter, passed along by NBC's Libby Leist, from Sen. Richard Lugar, dissecting everything he sees that's wrong with Washington and both parties:
Prepared Statement of Senator Richard G. Lugar on the Concluded Indiana Senate Primary
May 8, 2012
I would like to comment on the Senate race just concluded and the direction of American politics and the Republican Party. I would reiterate from my earlier statement that I have no regrets about choosing to run for office. My health is excellent, I believe that I have been a very effective Senator for Hoosiers and for the country, and I know that the next six years would have been a time of great achievement. Further, I believed that vital national priorities, including job creation, deficit reduction, energy security, agriculture reform, and the Nunn-Lugar program, would benefit from my continued service as a Senator. These goals were worth the risk of an electoral defeat and the costs of a hard campaign.
Analysts will speculate about whether our campaign strategies were wise. Much of this will be based on conjecture by pundits who don't fully appreciate the choices we had to make based on resource limits, polling data, and other factors. They also will speculate whether we were guilty of overconfidence.
The truth is that the headwinds in this race were abundantly apparent long before Richard Mourdock announced his candidacy. One does not highlight such headwinds publically when one is waging a campaign. But I knew that I would face an extremely strong anti-incumbent mood following a recession. I knew that my work with then-Senator Barack Obama would be used against me, even if our relationship were overhyped. I also knew from the races in 2010 that I was a likely target of Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and other Super Pacs dedicated to defeating at least one Republican as a purification exercise to enhance their influence over other Republican legislators.
We undertook this campaign soberly and we worked very hard in 2010, 2011, and 2012 to overcome these challenges. There never was a moment when my campaign took anything for granted. This is why we put so much effort into our get out the vote operations.
Ultimately, the re-election of an incumbent to Congress usually comes down to whether voters agree with the positions the incumbent has taken. I knew that I had cast recent votes that would be unpopular with some Republicans and that would be targeted by outside groups.
These included my votes for the TARP program, for government support of the auto industry, for the START Treaty, and for the confirmations of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan. I also advanced several propositions that were considered heretical by some, including the thought that Congressional earmarks saved no money and turned spending power over to unelected bureaucrats and that the country should explore options for immigration reform.
It was apparent that these positions would be attacked in a Republican primary. But I believe that they were the right votes for the country, and I stand by them without regrets, as I have throughout the campaign.
From time to time during the last two years I heard from well-meaning individuals who suggested that I ought to consider running as an independent. My response was always the same: I am a Republican now and always have been. I have no desire to run as anything else. All my life, I have believed in the Republican principles of small government, low taxes, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and trade expansion. According to Congressional Quarterly vote studies, I supported President Reagan more often than any other Senator. I want to see a Republican elected President, and I want to see a Republican majority in the Congress. I hope my opponent wins in November to help give my friend Mitch McConnell a majority.
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. Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve. The most consequential of these is stabilizing and reversing the Federal debt in an era when millions of baby boomers are retiring. There is little likelihood that either party will be able to impose their favored budget solutions on the other without some degree of compromise.
Unfortunately, we have an increasing number of legislators in both parties who have adopted an unrelenting partisan viewpoint. This shows up in countless vote studies that find diminishing intersections between Democrat and Republican positions. Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum are dominating the political debate in our country. And partisan groups, including outside groups that spent millions against me in this race, are determined to see that this continues. They have worked to make it as difficult as possible for a legislator of either party to hold independent views or engage in constructive compromise. If that attitude prevails in American politics, our government will remain mired in the dysfunction we have witnessed during the last several years. And I believe that if this attitude expands in the Republican Party, we will be relegated to minority status. Parties don't succeed for long if they stop appealing to voters who may disagree with them on some issues.
Legislators should have an ideological grounding and strong beliefs identifiable to their constituents. I believe I have offered that throughout my career. But ideology cannot be a substitute for a determination to think for yourself, for a willingness to study an issue objectively, and for the fortitude to sometimes disagree with your party or even your constituents. Like Edmund Burke, I believe leaders owe the people they represent their best judgment.
Too often bipartisanship is equated with centrism or deal cutting. Bipartisanship is not the opposite of principle. One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times. Certainly this was understood by President Reagan, who worked with Democrats frequently and showed flexibility that would be ridiculed today - from assenting to tax increases in the 1983 Social Security fix, to compromising on landmark tax reform legislation in 1986, to advancing arms control agreements in his second term.
I don't remember a time when so many topics have become politically unmentionable in one party or the other. Republicans cannot admit to any nuance in policy on climate change. Republican members are now expected to take pledges against any tax increases. For two consecutive Presidential nomination cycles, GOP candidates competed with one another to express the most strident anti-immigration view, even at the risk of alienating a huge voting bloc. Similarly, most Democrats are constrained when talking about such issues as entitlement cuts, tort reform, and trade agreements. Our political system is losing its ability to even explore alternatives. If fealty to these pledges continues to expand, legislators may pledge their way into irrelevance. Voters will be electing a slate of inflexible positions rather than a leader.
I hope that as a nation we aspire to more than that. I hope we will demand judgment from our leaders. I continue to believe that Hoosiers value constructive leadership. I would not have run for office if I did not believe that.
As someone who has seen much in the politics of our country and our state, I am able to take the long view. I have not lost my enthusiasm for the role played by the United States Senate. Nor has my belief in conservative principles been diminished. I expect great things from my party and my country. I hope all who participated in this election share in this optimism.
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The purists of the Tea Party cannot see the forest for the trees. Most Americans don't want an extremist party. By being in power, the TP will destroy the Republican Party. Mr. Luger is right with many portions of his letter. However it has been the Democrats compromising, not the TP Repubs. What are they to gain from party purity of most people don't think like they do? The current crop of Tea Party members in Congress are in danger of being voted out. For those of you who call Luger a RINO, grow the hell up. We need compromise in Washington.
the Tea Party won't destroy the Republican party any more than the Dixiecrats didn't destroy the Democratic Party back in the late 1940's. Nice thought, but not going to happen. BOTH do-nothing parties will still be around 50, 100 years from now, assuming American hasn't gone under by then. Rate we're going, that's turning into an even bet.
It really pisses me off when self-proclaimed Republicans use RHINO. Do you even know what you're saying? It's RINO, as in Republican In Name Only. I have a feeling that some you just heard Rush use that term and decided that "rhinos" were bad without even knowing what that really meant.
What a complete and utter douche bag. I particularly like the part where he says they should cave to criminal invaders from Mexico. He thought he was bowing to his new masters, but they aren't in charge... yet.
He lost and still has the nerve to blame the voters. His product isn't selling any more. He sat in Washington and got fat as programs he endorsed or failed to fight ran our country and economy into the ditch. He only offered more of the same, and the voters knew it.
Lugar was a great friend to current and future illegal aliens. I think the people woke up on that one. That's not partisanship, it's representatives representing their constituents instead of big business.
I'm not too sad to see him go. The Democrat in the race has a good record on enforcing our immigration laws. So does the Republican, so it's a win either way.
Lugar is gone, and has been on the outs for one very simple reason......Politics in Washington is no longer about consensus or compromise. It is about ideology. Frankly, it's rapidly becoming a zero sum game based almost solely on whether or not our Constitution is a ruling document. Lugar displayed little regard for those of us who have to fight daily with a government whose sole purpose seems to be the dismantling of itself and our economy.
Senator Lugar and all who are weeping today, it's time to wake up and see that there is no compromising on principles and there should never be. Our Constitution deserves a far better warrior than Lugar ever was. Hopefully, Richard Mourdock will pick up the flag and run with it again. God knows somebody needs to.......
GKlug
Ideology without conviction and the will to express it is useless. Our government, which in its infancy was an entity with conviction, has morphed into a corporate,self serving, ideological mish mosh of nothingness and represents only the whim "du jour". And there are people out there that want the government to be bigger and more involved! Go figure!
Well, at least Romney does compromise on nearly every issue--even
if it is only with what he said at his most recent campaign stop.
Replace "Romney" with "politician" and you won't look like such a retard next time.
Amen Forrest... I too was with a union and they did right by me. I did an honest days work and got paid an almost honest dollar. When the fiscal crisis hit we understood the implications, so we didn't go after our employer for the contractual raises, we took unpaid furloughs to save the company money and we paid higher premiums, so that our employer could keep their health care cost and other benefits low. When the crisis is over we expect our employer to remember our sacrifices and treat us fairly. Notice I said, "treated fairly" and nothing more. I don't see all of these up in arms people raising hell when it comes to all of these overpaid CEO's getting yet another million dollar bonus for laying off employees. I don't see them raising hell when it comes to all of these bailed out banks laying off thousands of employees to increase profits. I also don't see them raising hell when a these banks rubber stamp a foreclosure on a house and kick a family out onto the streets. How many of these folks know that the Federal Reserve actually pays a bank to sit on their money and not loan it out. That's right.. a bank, by law, must keep a certain amount of money in reserve, but did you know that the Federal Reserve pays them interest on any and all excess reserves they have? Why aren't you raising hell with your leaders about that?
Dick Lugar wanted the american people to be treated fairly and nothing more. Fairness means that compromises must be made. Ones views may have to be altered based on new data. The hardliners on both sides of the aisle have done nothing to move this country forward. Instead they have stagnated the process of bipartisanship and brought this countries economic progress to a complete standstill. It's like two kids arguing on a playground and they are both so damn stubborn they will argue all day until the sun goes down. Well, the sun is going down on this country and its time we stand up and say something to these stubborn ass leaders. As my dad use to say to me I now say to all of them, "either sh@$, or get off the pot."
Fairness means compromises must be made. However, there is no compromise on issues like border-hopping criminals. They aren't citizens. Their wants and needs are not relevant to a discussion of American politics. I only care what's fair to other citizens of this country. Lugar was in favor of Americans losing $20 an hour construction jobs to $8 an hour illegals. He's also in favor of losing $70,000 a year American truck driving jobs to $8 an hour Mexicans.
Scumbag
Richard Luger--one of the great statesmen, and gentlemen, of our time. I am saddened to see you go--but glad you have served with such distinction and good-natured grace. You have served your Nation well. Thank you, Senator.
PS. Given the toxic partisanship that prevails, you deserved better. Fortunately, you will not have to witness it up close much longer. Although your constituents did not vote against you with this in mind, they have freed you from the further daily ordeal of watching old-time GOP values and decency as they implode.
Boo Hoo over thirty years of hanging on to the government teat and hoping he can live another 20 or so yrs on a big pension check. While he didn't even live or have a house in his SUPPOSED home state. Hopefull a bunch more of the do nothing Politicians get kicked out of office in novemner.
Ed.. you are so damn wrong.. He has his pension whether he stays or not. He had it years and years ago, but chose to stay and serve. Also, him and his sons own a ranch in Indiana. How much more property does he need to own there for it to qualify as his home state? Does he have a place to live in DC? Sure he does, because it makes sense to live close to where you work. Do you expect him to fly to work every morning?
"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."
Sorry to see you go, this next Sen from Ind will not last long. He does not now how to govern.
You readers and MSNBC are idiots, he was a ll out to the principules of our Party and our Constitution, Obamination and his new Communist Party and their ideals are 100% against our Constitution. Lugar was a Democrat ass kissing traitor for Obamination, TARP was and is a total failure, the General Motors is Fasicism and nothing else chapter 13 reorganization would have done the exact same thing and would not have cost the tax payers $40 Billion dollars that has not been paid back. We the people that believe in our Constitution and our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms was opposed by the Traitor Lugar and I am glad this sorry SOB sewll out is gone and I wish all of you were in a Socialist/Communist country of your choice. Why don't you all move to Canada or Mexico for me I want my Constitution that I fought for back and Obamination and his ILK gone forever like you idiots. Amnesty is like pissing in the face of all the unemployed Americans and the hard working Tax Payers of this Country. If we are not a Nation of Laws then lets drop them all and see who survives I know I will. Lugar di.d what was best for him not our Constitution and certainly not for the greater good of our Country. The Tea Party is stronger than ever and we will take the Senate and get rid of anything and everything Obamination has done to Fuc— up this Country. P.S. As for the genocide of babies you sorry bastar— new communists I wish your parents had believed in abortion like you and your fellow murderer Obamination.
Got a whole lotta stupid working in your post, pal.
Shot anyone lately, nutjob?
You are a real freak-show Steven! Keep it up! You're making friends right AND left! LOL!!!
Steven Coy - part ofyour last sentence "I wish your parents had believed in abortion.."
I agree, I wish your parents had believed in abortion too!
Your post is really disgusting and hateful!
I think he gave a pretty accurate assesment, of where the Republican party is today. Ronald Reagan would not make it through a Republican primary, in the present political environment.
mad independent - don't you think he gave a pretty accurate assessment of where both parties are today? This country is so divided.....
Ed,
It is your ilk that don't get it. Lugar was an ernest and kind man any your type of tea baggers have been an embarrassment to the Republican Party. You folks are a flash in the pan and will be written about in history books as the kooks that hijacked the Grand Ole Party and caused their downfall. I say this as a staunch Democrat.
Yeah and he bailed out the auto industry too. To quickly paraphrase Sen Lugar: "the problem is fleabaggers are @!$%#s, who don't give two craps about the welfare of the country or its citizens but only about advancing its own wrong-headed, backwards agenda."
I agree with Senator Lugar. This country has become far too partisan. And the Tea Party is driving the Republican Party off a cliff. I am an independent, and when the primary season started, I was willing to consider voting for a sensible, moderate Republican. Unfortunately, there are no sensible, moderate Republicans left in the race. So I will vote for Barak Obama, as the best option left on the table in the fall, and hope for a more moderate GOP candidate in 2016. However, since Mitt Romney is not a "true conservative," the TP will end up nominating someone even more conservative in 2016, forcing me to vote for the Democrat in that election as well.
Dan:
I am voting for Romney.
Obama lacks the ability to talk to other leaders either domestically or Internationally. Romney is pragmatic and want to move ball forward. You assess the situation, you assess the power structure and see what best is possible. Romney's weakness on ideological bound thinking is plus for America.
Such guys make decisions. Bill Clinton accomplished even though often the issue went to drums , marches and wild orgy. It did produce result that both parties were happy with. It is like two Male deers in heat fighting. But differentially final results were You win, I win and that is the best politics.
Godgraviton,
Good luck with that.
Lugar was a good man. However it is fine for him to lose and retire. U.timately new blood has to get in and I do not like people to hang on and on.
He is extra ordinary embrace of Obama which had no return appreciation by President can be problem for staunch republcians. On lesson is that you do not get appreciated by this President for your help.
Maybe Lugar can accomplish more now as a Former Senator. It is time for him to educate people of Indiana with what he presented in his statement. That can be good
Geeze this place is more partizan than congress! And that is really not good at all.
Luger voted his conscience for what he believed to be the betterment of OUR country! I am not Republican leaning in my views but I do respect him for it! Wouldn't it be nice if all politicians did the same ?!? But ultimately that IS what this excersices is all about Big Money the NRA, Koch Brothers, and yes even the radical tea partists trying showing any others who might be thinking of doing the right thing for our country they'll pay for it! The real fight is not between Dems and Repubs but between these radical factions and wanting to get into office to rule the American public and the rest of us who have had enough of their self serving BS already!!
Good riddens Senator Lugar. I hope that every Politician across America did not sleep well last night. The bullseye is now on them.
I have read most of the comments here. They mirror the underlying fear I understood in Sen. Lugar's letter. This is a country divided, not so much by the Government, but by all the huge amounts of money spent on installing mirrors to distort what we are allowed to see. I was talking to my daughter, believe me, we do have a difference of opinion politically, and the one thing we could agree on is that there is something going on and it is not good. No matter who is voted in or out of office in this cycle there is a cancer growing in Washington and it will kill all of us. I am 62, I have lived while 7 presidents have been elected. There has been a severe change in the Republican party. The Democrats are leaning right too believe it or not. It is the rich that just about own this country now and with a few more losses by the left their job will be done. We will be nothing more than drones, left to die when we are no longer useful. Think about it, contraception under attack, anti-abortion, voter restriction, health care denied, education at every level under attack. The uber rich want too many people for jobs available, they will be forced to work for less just to have a job. I think it is the end of this country. I am glad I am old. I feel sorry for all of you that will live to see this come true. I will not come back to read the comments some of you will make. Maybe you will have the courage to do what it will take to change all of this. You working people will have to call a national strike, stay home for a week, there is power in numbers, use it. Profits for oil companies last year were staggering, how did you do? I know many will call me delusional, I am not. I am an old woman and glad of it. It is not what you know that hurts you, it's what you don't know and none of you know what the plans of the Roves and Kochs of this world have in store for you. History has a strange way of repeating itself BUT only if we will not learn from it.
Well thought out post, stating a lot of truths I agree with. I truly feel sorry for my grandchildren and those that follow, if we don't destroy the world with another war!
I didn't see anything in the letter that wasn't common knowledge to anyone who actively follows politics, consequently, none of it really needed to be said.
Unless of course you're a sore loser and just needed to get it off your chest.
Wow, the comments in this vine are amazing.....Lugar describes how both parties 'point fingers,' then the response from these readers is to point fingers at each other. Reminds me of the old school-yard taunt: "you started it....no, you did....it's your fault....no, it's yours." I totally get where Lugar is coming from; an ideological 'brawl' in Congress will accomplish nothing except bloodied noses. Perhaps Ghandi said it best: 'an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.'
Just a few observations: First: Now I know we are living in an upside-down, topsy-turvy, Bizarro World when Senator Luger is described as a moderate. Years ago, he was considered as right-wing as they come! He WAS always a gentleman (old-school, polite), but NOT moderate. The hive menatallity of the Tea Party must be extreme indeed to make Luger look like a moderate.
Second: The extreme partisanship that is being practiced is exactly what the wealthy and Corporate America want. They have THE SWEETEST DEAL IN HISTORY and they will make sure it stays that way by buying politicians and ordering them to take extreme positions. This keeps anything from getting done which preserves the historically low tax rates they enjoy. Their money is ALL that matters.
Third: The Tea Party reminds me of another similar fascist party in Germany during the early 20th century. Same kind of rhetoric ("you CANNOT be a patriot if you are not in our group") and the same insistence on lock-step adherence to their ideology. Or else.
Finally: I am guilty of extreme rhetoric myself. When someone says "Republican", I hear "racist and fascists" (thank the Tea Party for that...but still). And I know that "Democrat" means "socialist and unpatriotic" to those on the right. Neither is true for the REAL Democrats and Republicans in this country.
But the Tea Party? They scare me. And frankly, I think that is their intent. Governance by intimidation. And I am not talking about the "normal" fear-mongering ("it will be really bad if the other side wins"), I am talking about the kind that says, "If you don't believe what I believe then you're intent is to DESTROY THIS COUNTRY and you should be run out on a rail. You CANNOT be a patriot unless you agree with me! And if you are not a Patriot, then you are an enemy of The State!" Ironically, THAT'S the kind of rhetoric that WILL destroy this country. And that's all I hear from the Tea Party.
Thanks for nuthin' dopes!
Most conservatives here say its the democrats who are the problem-- it seems to me when prominent GOP people are giving public confessions- it pretty much tells the story.
GOP = hate, obstruction
There is a lot of wisdom in Senator Luger's letter. I hope real Americans take it to heart. The American political system has been reduced to a football game mentality. It's the Dallas Cowboys vs. the Washington Redskins. I'm looking for a big shot in the arm of intelligent "young" voters in this next election. They will make an intelligent decision, based on today's norms, lifestyles, and needs. If they vote, they will win!