On May 10, 10:04 am, "Seneca" <sen
...@microsoft.com> wrote:
> Luger who had been a senator since 1979 was a weak-kneed liberal. His defeat
> by a real conservative Tea Party candidate
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/05/10/v-lite/2138374/with-lugars-d...
"Republican moderates are no longer a dying breed. With Tuesday’s
defeat of Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, they are dead.
Known as Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor when he ran Indianapolis back
in the 1970s, this rock-solid Republican is no longer Republican
enough. As defined by the tea party, Lugar was “Obama’s favorite
senator,” a reference to Lugar’s welcome to the newbie from Illinois
in 2005. Of course, Lugar voted against most of his “friend’s” agenda,
including against President Barack Obama’s health care law, but never
mind.
In the tea party’s Republican Party, it is no longer enough to vote
conservatively. You must have the demeanor of a zealot."
"As his party moved right, Lugar’s American Conservative Union rating
slumped from the 90s to the 70s over the past few years. Lugar had a
raft of conservative votes – including against the despised health-
care law – but they were lost in his votes in favor of the Troubled
Asset Relief Program, the stimulus, Obama’s Supreme Court nominees
(even though he shepherded Bush’s nominees through the Senate), the
Dream Act (which Hatch sponsored back in the day) and the debt-ceiling
increase. Heresies, all.
More than Lugar’s votes, there is his mild manner. Even when behaving
as the tea party requires, Lugar did it without the requisite bombast
and disdain for the other side."
Rating:
http://senator-conservative-ratings.findthedata.org/q/41/230/How-do-c...
> Lugar's defeat was almost as embarrassing for the Democrats
On the contrary, it has moved this Senate seat into a potential pick-
up by the Democratic Candidate Joe Donnelly, where-as if it was Lugar
still running then it would be a solidly Republican hold.