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Why Senator Dick Lugar is Out
Townhall.com ^ | May 10, 2012 | Jeff Carter

Posted on 05/10/2012 6:11:59 AM PDT by Kaslin

Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar lost his primary bid yesterday. The spin is amazing.

Obama is spinning it to frame the new Republican party as uncompromising. The reality is the opposite. Republicans have been compromising for years. It’s the Democrats that don’t compromise. Fortunately for Republicans, I think that Democrats will lose the spin wars, and are totally misreading the election.

The spin is designed to try and get any one in the middle, if there is truly such a thing.

The liberal Chicago Tribune misses the point as well, and shows it is really good at eating from the Axelrod spoon that feeds them. Lugar lost not because he compromised on issues like national security and foreign policy. Lugar lost because he compromised on financial issues. He also has been there for 36 years. 36 years. Maybe it’s time for new thinking? A seat in Congress isn’t a permanent position.

The big issues this campaign are going to be Obamacare and how a candidate voted on financial issues. The Democratic Senate candidate from Indiana voted for Obamacare, for all the bailouts, and for higher spending and taxes. That is directly opposed from the mood held by the majority of the national electorate. Social issues take a back seat when you can’t find a job.

The Tea Party from its inception has been about fiscal accountability. Stop spending. No where do you see social issues, or foreign policy issues at the forefront of a Tea Party meeting. The old Republican lions of the Senate and House are being retired because they are out of step with this new line of thinking illustrated by people like Paul Ryan.

Trent Lott is now lobbying for a treaty that he firmly opposed as a sitting Senator. He will say his thinking evolved. However, I just think his checkbook evolved. Today’s electorate wants people that stand firm on principles-fiscal restraint principles being at the forefront.

Lugar hasn’t had a recent voting record that was stellar when it came to conservative fiscal principles. You can’t talk a good game and not vote a good game. The US is close to a financial cliff. The net present value tables of future liabilities are unbending. Unless we stop profligate spending now, we are doomed.

Lugar’s Republican opponent Richard Mourdock has said he will be a fiscal conservative if elected. I hope he gets elected so we will have a chance to find out. Sometimes politicians change their tune once they get into office. They worry about re-election rather than the things they campaigned on. We know his opponent isn’t a fiscal conservative.

This is a nationwide phenomena. Michigan has a Republican governor and legislature. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has followed through on campaign promises and is popular with a majority of the electorate. Yesterday, in the recall primary election Walker received more votes than his Democratic rivals. It will be a tough fight, but I think Walker will keep his seat as Governor of Wisconsin. That’s a good thing because one of the major fiscal problems our country, states and cities have is public employee unions.

UPDATE

On a different but similar vein, I am in favor of term limits for all elected officials.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 05/10/2012 6:12:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Because Lugar called himself a Republican but is really a democrat =liberal/socialist, corrupt, marxist, liar.


2 posted on 05/10/2012 6:14:07 AM PDT by rurgan (Sunset all laws at 3 years. China makes everything taking U.S. ability to manufacture)
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To: Kaslin
He lost because he didn't get as many votes as Mourdock.

He didn't get as many votes as Mourdock because he's an @$$hole.

3 posted on 05/10/2012 6:16:09 AM PDT by OKSooner (Never take a "known safety risk" shooting with you even if he is an ordained minister.)
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To: Kaslin
Social issues take a back seat when you can’t find a job.

This is true and it will apply to Obama's flip-flop on gay marriage also. The effect will be largely moot, even with young people, IMHO.

4 posted on 05/10/2012 6:18:24 AM PDT by wayoverontheright
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To: Kaslin

Lugar showed exactly why he lost in his “loser” speech.

He said that his opponent would have to ‘revise’ his stance on being hardline conservative, in order to “get things done” in washington.

1) his opponent WON by taking a hardline stance- why should he ‘revise’ the issue? THAT IS WHY HE WON

2) to ‘revise’ your stance after you are elected is the same as “lying to the voters” THAT IS WHY YOU LOST

3) you have been in office 36 years- WHILE THESE PROBLEMS HAPPENED - you WERE PART OF THE PROBLEM, Loser- i mean Lugar


5 posted on 05/10/2012 6:18:36 AM PDT by Mr. K (If Romney wins the primary, I am writing-in PALIN)
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To: Kaslin

I have made the point about “comprimise” many times to aquaintences. It’s always the GOP that “comprimises”. It’s all about “fairness” for liberals. They think that any Idea, no matter how outlandish, needs to be respected.


6 posted on 05/10/2012 6:19:47 AM PDT by justice14 ("stand up defend or lay down and die")
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To: wayoverontheright
This is true and it will apply to Obama's flip-flop on gay marriage also. The effect will be largely moot, even with young people, IMHO.

I have been unemployed and I don't recall that experience making me more socially liberal at all.

7 posted on 05/10/2012 6:20:32 AM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: rurgan
Because Lugar called himself a Republican but is really a democrat =liberal/socialist, corrupt, marxist, liar.

And he called himself an Hoosier, but was really a Washingtonian who occasionally visited relatives back in Indiana.

8 posted on 05/10/2012 6:22:51 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (You only have three billion heartbeats in a lifetime.How many does the government claim as its own?)
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To: Kaslin

You know, when I was growing up, government employees and teachers made modest salaries. Now they are pigs at the trough.

Hey, there is a reason and a certain grace to living within one’s means.


9 posted on 05/10/2012 6:25:51 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Mr. K

no one cares about “getting things done” Dickie boy. they care about holding the line. Oh maybe the military allusion is lost on a genius like you.


10 posted on 05/10/2012 6:29:32 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: KarlInOhio

I’m happy that creep Lugar is out! Finally some good news!


11 posted on 05/10/2012 6:30:15 AM PDT by rurgan (Sunset all laws at 3 years. China makes everything taking U.S. ability to manufacture)
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To: KarlInOhio

Those intolerant, small-minded Indiana Republicans decided they wanted to be represented by someone who actually lives in Indiana.


12 posted on 05/10/2012 6:30:56 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Kaslin
The liberal Chicago Tribune misses the point as well, and shows it is really good at eating from the Axelrod spoon that feeds them.

This in itself speaks volumes. 'Da Trib' was once a conscientious Conservative newspaper. Col. McCormick must be spinning in his grave.

13 posted on 05/10/2012 6:34:15 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Kaslin

Thumbing your nose at the people who gave you your job will sooner or later cost you.Buh-by Lugar,won’t miss you.


14 posted on 05/10/2012 6:36:04 AM PDT by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: Kaslin

The democrats are falling all over themselves to tell us what a foolish move it is to send Lugar packing.

That alone shows us it is the right thing to do.


15 posted on 05/10/2012 6:36:20 AM PDT by Iron Munro (If Repub's paid as much attention to Rush Limbaugh as the Dem's do, we wouldn't be in this mess)
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To: Mr. K

Think you nailed it - ‘good’.


16 posted on 05/10/2012 6:52:48 AM PDT by cricket (Calling Marco Rubio; Allen West. . .because they are NOT afraid. And neither was/is Newt. . .)
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To: Kaslin

As an Indiana voter I can give many reasons why he was (finally!) kicked out of office. He did not have a recorded residential address in the county (Marion) he was ‘registered’ to vote in; County Republican chairmen would ask him to attend various gatherings and his office would arrogantly tell them he doesn’t have to do them anymore; he was more interested in cow-towing to the globalist United Nations AND DEMOCRATS then visiting the State (and voters) who sent him to set in his lofty Senate seat; his own arrogance and holier-than-thou attitude FINALLY got him canned and Indiana, (no matter how the November election goes) is now much better off for it!


17 posted on 05/10/2012 7:02:16 AM PDT by CORYDON
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To: OKSooner
Lugar is far from an @$$hole. I don't know anyone who ever met him who wasn't impressed by his polite courtesy...and that polite courtesy got him elected, and re-elected, six times.

As long as we thought that Dick Lugar was a charming Hoosier, we tolerated his penchant for caving in to the Washington statists. The discovery that Lugar, in fact, really didn't live in Indiana (and even went so far as to charge taxpayers for his hotel rooms when he came to visit)tore the scab off his liberal voting record.

18 posted on 05/10/2012 7:15:18 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Kaslin

Just the tip of the iceberg...More rinos to follow.


19 posted on 05/10/2012 7:23:27 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Kaslin

20 posted on 05/10/2012 7:26:45 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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