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Richard Lugar and the End of Moderate Republicanism
Nation ^ | 5-8-12 | Ari Berman

Posted on 05/08/2012 12:38:54 PM PDT by tcrlaf

If Indiana Senator Dick Lugar loses his Republican primary race to Tea Party challenger Richard Mourdock tonight, as polls indicate is likely, his defeat will signal the end of moderate Republican internationalism in the US Senate and the GOP more broadly.

Lugar, a two time chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee best known for his work on arms control and nonproliferation treaties, used to be one of the GOP’s leading figures on foreign policy. Now he’s an outlier.

The Senate Republican caucus was once filled with the likes of Dick Lugar—sensible realists such as Lincoln Chafee, Chuck Hagel, George Voinovich and Olympia Snowe. Now they’re all gone or going, casualties of a Republican party where diplomacy, multilateralism and bipartisanship are dirty words. (A Mourdock ad called Lugar “Obama’s favorite Republican.”)

(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: democrats; in2012; indiana; lugar; mourdock; rino; rmsp; teaparty; thenation
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To: tcrlaf

Bob Beckel shed a lot of tears for loss of Lugar in senate on THE FIVE show today...tells you everything!


61 posted on 05/08/2012 4:39:32 PM PDT by entropy12 (No way I will do anything to help the thug from Chicago pResiding in WH)
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To: x
Nelson Rockefeller had a fatal heart attack in the library .....

I'm surprised you didn't correct that erratum. We both know that the library wasn't the "chamber" Rocky was in when he had his fatal heart attack. IIRC, he was going back and forth between two "chambers" when it happened.

62 posted on 05/08/2012 4:41:37 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: USS Alaska

Yikes, I better postpone my dinner by another hour!


63 posted on 05/08/2012 4:44:14 PM PDT by entropy12 (You betcha I won't do anything to help the dog eating, crack smoking socialist thug from Chicago)
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
SKUNCs — statists knowingly undermining national charters

Hmmm, good one. Why don't you park it over here, and leave the keys in it?

;)

64 posted on 05/08/2012 4:45:49 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: lentulusgracchus

When I die, I want to go out with a smile on my face, like Nelson Rockefeller...not crying, screaming and gasping for breath like Megan Marshack.


65 posted on 05/08/2012 4:48:42 PM PDT by RichInOC (Palin 2012: The Perfect Storm.)
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To: tcrlaf

Moderate (RINO) Republicans won’t be dead until we finally drive a stake through each of their hearts! Til then they’ll be sucking the life’s blood from the neck’s of the American people with their buddies in the Democrat Party....two vampires on one straw!


66 posted on 05/08/2012 4:52:35 PM PDT by Forty-Niner (The barely bare, berry bear formerly known as..........Ursus Arctos Horribilis.)
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To: RichInOC

LOL I had to look her up. She apparently is still alive and living in New York.


67 posted on 05/08/2012 4:53:33 PM PDT by NathanR
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To: All
Can someone with on-the-ground info comment on Mourdock’s chances in the general election?

I don't know this race but it would not be good to see a moderate (i.e. RINO) Republican replaced by a real Democrat. Not trying to throw cold water on the party, but I do want to get answers to that question.

68 posted on 05/08/2012 5:20:01 PM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: TSgt

Add Eric Canter right along w/him (David Dreyer, CA and many, many others in the House.)


69 posted on 05/08/2012 5:54:07 PM PDT by zerosix (native sunflower)
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To: tcrlaf
If the lefties at The Nation are lamenting his political passing, that should tell you all you need to know about Lugar. All the author means by "moderate" is "votes with Democrats." See ya, Dickie.

What the author is really lamenting is the passing of the time when his side could be intractable, fervently tribal, and ideologically radical and still manage to con the other side into compromise with the "reward" of an occasional kind word in the media and a certain dagger in the back should a labeled Democrat begin to look electable. What the author means by "moderate" is "sucker".

70 posted on 05/08/2012 6:06:55 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: GraceG
Greetings GraceG:

Was Blue Dog Democrat. 0bama ate me.

Cheers,
OLA

71 posted on 05/08/2012 6:19:09 PM PDT by OneLoyalAmerican (In God I trust, all others provide citations.)
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To: tcrlaf

Next up - Orrin Hatch.

Down the Hatch !!!


72 posted on 05/08/2012 6:50:44 PM PDT by Eccl 10:2
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To: southernnorthcarolina

With 88% of the vote in Mourdock leads Lugar 61-39 - which it has been all night - a Rino ass-kickin’.

The polls here in Indiana have had Lugar down 5 to 10 points. How does that happen - the polls weren’t even close ..... ???


73 posted on 05/08/2012 7:09:19 PM PDT by gnawbone
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To: Secret Agent Man

I have a feeling we’d all throw up if we knew what perks they REALLY get. It seems they’ll do anything to stay in office. Even when they’re damned close to the grave.


74 posted on 05/08/2012 7:14:22 PM PDT by Terry Mross ("It happened. And we let it happen." Peter Griffin - FAMILY GUY)
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To: Venturer
He died in the saddle and his mistress didn’t call the ambulance in time.

I recall three different stories (location, accompanying persons, activity) were broadcast on the radio within a half hour, before the 'official' version became official.

I had a date that night, and I still remember her looking at me and saying, " Well, that story sure changed, didn't it?"

75 posted on 05/08/2012 7:42:51 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: tcrlaf

If you read the entire article, it’s clear the writer is a crack-ingesting oxygen thief.


76 posted on 05/08/2012 7:50:33 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: depressed in 06
Do you know how to make a Republican more liberal?

Elect him the the U.S. Senate.

77 posted on 05/08/2012 9:36:22 PM PDT by oyez ( Yomomacare going done once, going down twice, going---..)
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To: gnawbone
The polls here in Indiana have had Lugar down 5 to 10 points. How does that happen - the polls weren’t even close ..... ???

How about "political pollster" as an anagram for "lyin' MF"? (You have to drop the "g" or it doesn't work. -- ;) )

Someone commented a couple of days ago that the Indianapolis Star, which is usually conservative (so much so that they get scoffed at and abused a lot by JournoListers from "swave, debone-air, cosmopolitan" states like Ohio), was in the tank for Dick Lugar. Guess so, since even their polls lied like a dog on a rug.

78 posted on 05/09/2012 12:17:22 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: oyez
Do you know how to make a Republican more liberal? Elect him the the U.S. Senate.

Yeah -- they "grow". Like mushrooms, and for the same reason.

79 posted on 05/09/2012 12:20:17 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: tcrlaf
(A Mourdock ad called Lugar “Obama’s favorite Republican.”)

That's odd, as Obama also called Lugar his favorite Republican too.

80 posted on 05/09/2012 4:51:07 AM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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