I realize that all politicians are narcissists to an extent, but judging the value of a political movement on whether it helps you or not seems a bit, shall we say, self-centered.
In one of the more curious comments so far in the challenge by Richard Mourdock to Dick Lugar, Lugar said that he could not say whether the Tea Party movement was good for the GOP until after he knew the results of the May 8 primary.
As reported by The Weekly Standard:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Do you think the movement has been a positive for the Republican party?
LUGAR: I’ll wait until—[pause]
TWS: Until you’ve won your primary?
LUGAR: Until I see how things are going.
As further reported by TWS:
Lugar is confident. He predicts he will win the May 8 primary. “I’m not looking at myself as a casualty,” Lugar said. “The word survivor’s the correct word. [We’re] quite healthy, and I believe we’re going to win in two weeks.”
HuffPo further reports:
He added that “some elements of the Tea Party have opposed me, but not the Hamilton County Tea Party and not several other tea parties, so let’s make clear this is not a monolithic movement in Indiana.”
The veteran senator also was not ready to say that the GOP benefited from the movement. “I’ll wait and see how things are going,” he said — and a reporter added, “Two weeks.”
Lugar long has loathed the Tea Party movement, falsely blaming it for the failure to capture the Senate in 2010. As I noted in late December:
Richard Lugar, facing conservative challenger Richard Mourdock, is resurrecting the false meme that the Tea Party cost Republicans control of the Senate in 2010. Au contraire, Carley Fiorina (CA), Dino Rossi (WA) and John Raese (W.Va) were establishment candidates chosen because they were establishment and who lost winnable races. Nevada is the biggest false meme; Sue Lowden lost the primary to Sharron Angle because Lowden self-destructed (chickens for medical services) and was targeted by the Reid machine. If Lowden couldn’t survive the Reid machine in the primaries, she would not have won the general. The Lugar – Mourdock primary match up definitely is on my radar.
Dick Lugar has become a caricature of the Washington insider who thinks the world revolves around him.
You can support Richard Mourdock here. There is little time left. Do it.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
‘Romney apathy’ may affect the whole election – 100,000 fewer votes for Romney in two states than for McCain in 2008:
http://recovering-liberal.blogspot.com/2012/04/romney-apathy-rules100000-behind.html
A consistent pattern…
Romney having trouble holding onto 2008 supporters: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/19/romney-shows-trouble-keeping-supporters-from-2008/
Look at Maine: Ron Paul DOUBLED his share of the people voting for him, and Romney LOST ground.
–In 2008, Paul took 18% of the vote, and Romney took 51%.
–In 2012, Paul took 36% of the vote, and Romney took 39%.
Look what happened in Michigan – he barely scraped by.
Every county in FL where Romney won, the vote count was way down. Every county in FL that Newt won, the vote count was up.
Every state Romney wins the vote count is down.
Who gives a flying FLUCK what Lugar thinks is good for the GOP…much less if he thinks the TEA Party is good for the GOP…???
There are elements in the GOP that are decidedly threatened by the TEA Party movement, as well they should be.
Lugar and Hatch being two…
Retread candidates cost us the Senate in 2010. Rossi, Raese and O’Donnell had all been rejected by the voters in statewide races multiple times before. Third, fourth and fifth times are seldom the charm in politics.
The real question is, “Has Lugar been good for the Republican Party?” Simple question. Simple answer, “Hell NO!”