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“Young Guns Support Elderly RINO” Dick Lugar (Update: Mourdock up by 5 in new poll)

“Young Guns Support Elderly RINO” Dick Lugar (Update: Mourdock up by 5 in new poll)

That’s the headline Bill Kristol gives to this Politico report:

The Young Guns Network, a group affiliated with two former aides to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, paid more than $100,000 in mail costs to help embattled Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, federal filings show.

The expenditure showed up in a 24-hour notice, and show the payout was $104,628 for “mailers,” paid to a group called Creative Direct LLC.

A senior adviser to YG Network, Brad Dayspring, didn’t immediately respond to an email.

But the establishment has been rallying to Lugar’s side as he runs in a tight primary race against state treasurer Richard Mourdock.

Kristol goes on to note;

“Young Guns … was designed to help leaders like Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy chart a new course for the center-right movement and the House majority,” Young Guns Action Fund super PAC founder John Murray has said. It’s not clear how this donation to Lugar furthers that cause. And it’s not clear why Young Guns is meddling in a GOP Senate primary. Indeed, Mike Pence, another young gun-type House member who’s now running for Indiana governor, has conspicuously failed to endorse Lugar for reelection.

More important: $100,000 could go a long way to supporting a Republican against a Democrat this year in a competitive House race. Is helping a six-term Senate incumbent who’s not so conservative try to beat back a conservative primary challenge by someone who would hold the Senate seat for the GOP really the best use of that money? Is it the use donors to Young Guns expected? And if Lugar loses (as many expect), won’t this expenditure be particularly embarrassing?

I’ve heard as yet unconfirmed reports that a new poll shows that Mourdock has taken a lead over Lugar.

Lugar is in trouble, and his desperation is joined, unfortunately, by the Republican leadership in Washington.

You can support Mourdock here.  We’re on the cusp of a great upset in Indiana.  Don’t waste the opportunity.

Update:  Here’s the poll:

Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar has fallen behind state Treasurer Richard Mourdock by  five points, according to a new poll released exclusively to POLITICO.

The survey, taken Tuesday and Wednesday by Wenzel Strategies on behalf of  Citizens United, places Mourdock at 44 percent and Lugar at 39 percent. Nearly  17 percent remain undecided with just 12 days to go until the Indiana Senate  primary…. In mid-March, a Wenzel survey showed Lugar clinging to just a 6-point advantage.

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Comments

Eric Cantor used the Young Gun moniker to help him get re-elected. Cantor is no Young Gun. He’s just another RINO who pays lip service to Conservatism when he thinks it will help him. So, his support of Lugar is no surprise. I knew someone a long time ago and she said she was a good friend of Lugar, had gone to school with him, and she liked him. She was a Liberal, and she’s likely deceased by now because she had cancer. I remember thinking that though I liked the lady very much, if she approved of Lugar that meant he was a Democrat in his thinking and voting patterns. Yet, Cantor is backing him. That says a lot about Cantor.

    Republicans HATE conservatives… especially the conservatives who are serious about reducing the size and scope of gov’t. (Nothing new, but this “Young Guns” episode is another useful reminder.)

Again I’m getting the sense that Republicans, the extreme elements anyway, are determined to defeat themselves. 1964 deja vu.

It occurs to me that the time to worry about “Rinos” is after you’ve taken over both houses of Congress and the Presidency. “Rinos” have one feature that helps…they cave to a majority of peers, so the first goal should be a majority, then dither about who is Rino and who is not.

    Aridog in reply to Aridog. | April 26, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Case on point: Murkowski in Alaska … defeated by “Republicans” in the primary, she won in the actual election with write in votes. Hello? It’s is best to not divide up spoils until you have a victory.

    Sharron Angle also comes to mind, as the best opponent Reid could have asked for, hell even prayed for … then there was This Winner. Sigh.

      Uh, victory means defeating these Assistant Democrats. We will divide the “spoils” after we defeat them. You don’t advance conservatism by first electing liberals. Do you know how elections work?

    syn in reply to Aridog. | April 26, 2012 at 11:36 am

    Perhaps you were born after the GW BushCo years (2000-2006) when Republicans were majority in both House and Senate and spent like spoiled children in a candy store. They spent more than Clinton!!!!

    And throughout 2000-2006 I recall every right-center blogger and right-center pundit endlessly complain about the Big Spending Republicans controlling both House and Senate and how they must be elected out of office; relentlessly declaring that we must hold these Big Spending Republicans accountable!!!

    Now all I hear from these same right-center bloggers and right-center pundits is that we must re-elect the same Republican politicians who spent like spoiled children in a candy store because WINNING the House and the Senate is all that matters.

    And too further drive the stake of death into sanity, these same right-center bloggers and right-center pundits proclaim that the ‘Purist Extremists are the problem’

    Given the fact that we are faced with Presdient Romney administration which will likely spent a little more than GW Bush yet a little less than Obama the only way to hold Washington DC Ruling Class accountable is to load both the House and Senate with as many Fiscally Conservatives (Small Government) Republicans as possible.

    PS: If Sue Lowden (with her chicken medicine) could not defeat Sharron Angle how in the heck could she beat Harry Reid with his corrupt casino bosses’ backing?

      stevewhitemd in reply to syn. | April 26, 2012 at 4:46 pm

      Yes, the Pubs from 2000-06 spent like spoilt children.

      Whereas the Democrats who replaced them (because a fair number of conservatives sat on their hands in the 06 election) spent like, well, progressives.

      How’s that been working out?

      I have no problem supporting Mourdock against Lugar: Lugar, a nice enough fellow, has served his state and country well, and now it’s time for him to come home.

      But I’d be careful about too much ‘RINO bashing’: it’s a good way to be in the permanent minority.

      Your hero, Newt Gingrich, got the House to flip in ’94 precisely by tolerating a fair number of RINOs.

The struggle against the Establishment is in many ways harder and more challenging than the one against the Left. The former saps freedom and conservatism with institutional subversions and pretenses, while the latter at least has the potential to unite and mobilize conservatism as a clear enemy.

The “young guns”? What a joke. Worse, another symptom of the sickness of misrepresentation. I didn’t realize the extent of it until I saw how the elites marshalled themselves around Romney and swarmed Gingrich — with greater focus and ferocity than they’d ever turned on the Left. And on it goes. The mocking and vicious attacks on Gingrich still continue — even as he leaves the race, as if his very existence and the reminder of his campaign against their Establishment presumptions drives them mad. He must be pulverized, humiliated, ruined. Have they ever viewed the Left with this sense of outrage and with the same intent to destroy?

And now Romney begins playing out the game per our predictions, flipping Left on students loans, immigration –anything “controversial” or requiring a principled enunciation of conservatism before the public. The Establishment certainly got their “boy.”

    StrangernFiction in reply to raven. | April 26, 2012 at 11:30 am

    The GOPE is the Left’s greatest ally. The role they play in marginalizing actual/constitutional conservatives is crucial.

    “The struggle against the Establishment is in many ways harder and more challenging than the one against the Left.”

    The GOPE whines against the left while calling for comity and civility but then wages all-out war against conservatives. Just like liberals. That what makes it a corrupt one-party establishment. Dirty money pays for one kabuki script with two competing narratives (for drama) but whoever you vote for, we end up in the same place.

A lot of RINO’s need to be ousted. I just added Cantor to my list after seeing the donation to Lugar.

    Aridog in reply to Scorpio51. | April 26, 2012 at 11:00 am

    Great choice … vote against the only guy who has put forth Congressional Budget in nearly 4 years.

    Many Republicans seem to not grasp the difference between strategy and tactics. They seem to think punishment of some is preferable to victory for all.

    As I said earlier … it’s bad form and fruitless to divvy up spoils before you win a victory.

      PrincetonAl in reply to Aridog. | April 26, 2012 at 11:15 am

      “Divvy up spoils before you win a victory”. What nonsense.

      It isn’t a victory for conservatives unless you elect a conservative. Indiana will elect Mourdock if he wins the nomination, he will be more conservative than Lugar.

      However, there is not much point or satisfaction in arguing with a troll or a Lugar supporter or whatever …

      But I can give another $50 to Mourdock everytime Aridog opens up with another bit of anti-Tea Party, pro-RINO nonsense.

      How much do you want to help Mourdock today, Aridog? Post away! I’ve got my checkbook ready to go. Here is your chance to support Mourdock. How about 5 more posts? Richard could use another $250 I think.

      Anyone else want to join me? 🙂

        Aridog in reply to PrincetonAl. | April 26, 2012 at 11:48 am

        A troll eh? A Rino lover, too. You’ve rather obviously never read most of my posts here or elsewhere. Might you be a Moby?

        No matter, I’m delighted I made you feel anxious enough to lash out at some one who supports conservatism but prefers to win first, then resolve issues of degree … and thereby proving my point.

        Do have a good day. Stay on tactics, ignore strategy. You’ll be doing the Democrats a huge favor.

        stevewhitemd in reply to PrincetonAl. | April 26, 2012 at 4:56 pm

        Indiana will elect Mourdock if he wins the nomination, he will be more conservative than Lugar.

        Correct. Electing a more conservative candidate in a conservative state is a good strategy.

        But putting forward a conservative candidate in a liberal state is a good way to lose.

        I use this political spectrum for American politics, from left to right: indigo — blue — sky — purple — pink — red — crimson.

        A state, whatever its color, votes (in statewide elections) for the candidate who is closest to its own color, and generally doesn’t elect someone more than one color away. Just the way people are.

        Yes, yes, Massachusetts, as close to an indigo state as we have, elected the purple Scott Brown, but only because Martha Coakley was both odious and incompetent. But you have to get the stars aligned just right, something Christine O’Donnell (crimson) couldn’t do in Delaware (blue).

        Indiana is red. Lugar is pink to purple. Mourdock is red. So it’s a good strategy to elect Mourdock since the Democratic candidate in the fall is (at least) sky. This is a seat the Pubs keep so electing the more conservative candidate is smart.

        Utah is crimson. Replacing Hatch (pink) with another crimson candidate is good strategy.

        But if you want a majority Republican Senate you have to tolerate some pink and purple Republicans, because we don’t have enough red and crimson states to elect all red and crimson Senators. Some will have to come from blue states, and to win they’ll be pink to purple. Again, just the way it is.

        The good news is, the first vote the pink and purple Republicans cast on the Senate floor in 2013 will be to make Mitch McConnell the Senate majority leader. Or do you prefer Harry Reid?

          PrincetonAl in reply to stevewhitemd. | April 26, 2012 at 5:31 pm

          Absolutely, spot on, I agree.

          Somewhere a leftist pollster ran a plot of how conservative a state was vs. how conservative the senator was across all the state was, with all the states on one axis and the conservative (ACU or other I think) score on the other, and the senators plotted for each. The state ranking (I think based on a variation of PVI) was plotted as a curvy line from the upper right to lower left.

          It was an awesome map as to who to primary, and where the purple Senators were likely the best we could do.

          I love a good visualization idea, well executed.

First “young guns” is such a stupid name, one its sexist, second these people are not exactly that young.

Second, why are they not supporting Mordock? I gave my first donation to Murdock, because I agree with him on fiscal issues (I’m not socially conservative), but it is more a case that Murdock cannot win in the general senate election in Indiana? If that is the case, then I hope Lugar wins the primary, but I always thought Indiana was more red than blue.

If Murdock can win in the general, then Lugar needs to be defeated. Hell, I was a democrat when Lugar joined Reid in says the Iraq war was lost, I had friends who were serving at that time, and I remember being so pissed at Reid and Lugar over that one statemtent.

If Murdock cannot win in the general, then I would rather have Lugar than a socialist demonRat.

    StrangernFiction in reply to alex. | April 26, 2012 at 11:40 am

    And what does it say about America if a red state like Indiana chooses a ‘rat after four years of destruction at the hands of the Democratic Party?

    If we have to settle for someone like Richard Lugar in Indiana because an actual conservative can’t get elected there, than we are clearly passed the point at which America is going to be saved via the electoral process.

      EVEN IF Mourdock ends up losing in the general, getting rid of a corrupt and entrenched liberal whether a Democrat or Assistant Democrat is a step in the right direction. “Both” parties are committed to entrenchment. If we can at least raise the risks for defying the wishes of the voters, we will get better, more responsive candidates.

        There is also a lot of cheating involved, it may not always be that people pick them dem over Murdock.

        And quite honestly if people here would prefer a demonRat over Lugar, you people are even more nuts than I thought.

        The only reason I donated to Murdock is from what I’ve read, Indiana is decently red, so Lugar or Murdock can win in the general, but Murdock will lose in the general, then I hope as hell Lugar can pull it out.

        I’m not into the throw the entire establishment out just for the sake of it, especially with the senate control in case Barry Soetero gets reelected. I want fiscal cons to be elected, but I am not supporting anyone like a Sharron Angle, who I thought was the weakest of the 3.

          So you are saying that you are a conservative who votes for liberals because conservatives are unelectable so only liberals can deliver conservatism? Brilliant!

          It’s like Mark Steyn says in his latest book, you can always count on “conservatives” to vote for liberals in the end. There are too many “conservatives” who confuse Republican as being the same thing as “conservative”.

          That is also why I don’t buy those polls that say 60% of Americans are “conservative” or “right-leaning moderates”. The more accurate argument is that 60% of Americans are anti-establishment. Democrat and Republican voters alike are disaffiliating from their parties for the same reason. The one-party system is only making the dirty money happy and it has gotten really expensive to keep selling that cancer.

    StrangernFiction in reply to alex. | April 26, 2012 at 11:40 am

    And what does it say about America if a red state like Indiana chooses a ‘rat after four years of destruction at the hands of the Democratic Party?

    If we have to settle for someone like Richard Lugar in Indiana because an actual conservative can’t get elected there, than we are clearly passed the point at which America is going to be saved via the electoral process.

      StrangernFiction in reply to StrangernFiction. | April 26, 2012 at 11:44 am

      Or to put it another way, it is obvious at that point that the “opposition party” doesn’t have what it takes to defend our freedoms and keep us from serfdom.

      And electing Dick Lugar is only going help keep the frogs in the pot longer, putting off the inevitable extra-electoral struggle necessary to keep us from being subjects.

“One of America’s most influential Republicans rounded on George Bush over Iraq yesterday, saying the “surge” begun in February had little chance of success.

“In my judgment the current surge strategy is not effective,” Mr Lugar told the Senate.

“Harry Reid, Democrat majority leader in the Senate, praised Mr Lugar’s speech as “courageous” saying it was an historic turning point…”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/27/usa.iraq

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | April 26, 2012 at 11:55 am

There’s a lot about the “Young Guns” contribution to Luger’s campaign that I find obnoxious.

But there’s one thing I have not heard anyone mention yet that I think is relevant.

Remember during the ’10 cycle, Jim DeMint’s PAC helped finance and endorsed strong conservatives during the primaries. He was roundly criticized by the establishment for getting involved in Republican vs Republican primary elections. He took a lot of heat. He was pressured so much that he agreed he would NOT help fiance candidates during the Republican primaries this cycle.

Yet Canter helped finance Kitzinger in a Republican primary for a House seat in Illinois, and now his Young Guns is helping finance Dick Luger’s Senate primary campaign.

Why is it ok for the YG’s to try to pick winners in primaries but it’s not ok for DeMint?

Thanks for highlighting Mourdock, Love, and others, Professor. I hope they remember you were out in front of the pack singing their praises.

There should be a mandatory retirement age and it should be 70. These politicians are no longer serving us; they’re just power crazy.

I got called this past weekend by a pollster about this race. I happily added my name to the +5 in favor of Mourdock and also happily drew the contrast between the politician who tried to protect Indiana retirees and the one who sold them out, in the auto bailout.

[…] are polls out now that say Mourdock is up five on Lugar now.  Are you one of the people who can say they were a part of it?  It’s not too late but the […]

[…] …the GOP Establishment is rallying around Dick Lugar, just as it did with Mitt Hussein Romney… The Young Guns Network, a group affiliated with two former aides to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, paid more than $100,000 in mail costs to help embattled Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, federal filings show. […]