Another One Bites The Dust

Last night in Indiana, the longest serving Republican in the Senate was shown the door in a big way. State Treasurer and Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock, put an end to Richard Lugar's almost four decades of service to the Hoosier state. The Mourdock win was a resounding defeat for the long time Republican moderate, who clobbered Lugar by 21 points 61% to 39%.  So yet again another Republican moderate gets kicked to the curb by a hard right conservative idea log. Mourdock will face Indiana's Democratic 2nd District Representative Joe Donnelly in the general election. Donnelly who is known as a Democratic moderate, may now put what would have been a Republican Senate lock under Lugar, up for grabs in November.

Richard Mourdoch vs. Richard Lugar

Conservatives had long targeted Lugar for defeat, arguing he represented a Republican establishment in Congress that has acquiesced to the Democratic party. They singled out Lugar's votes for the bailouts, in support of the president's stimulus and votes to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor as evidence of his "RINO" (Republican in name only) status. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum were among the high-profile politicians who offered public support for Mourdock's campaign.

In a speech to supporters last night Lugar said he was “optimistic about the future of Indiana and the United States” and said the deep partisan divides exemplified by conservatives like Mourdock “are not insurmountable.” In a second statement he issed later, Lugar went on to say “If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator...  but that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington.” Lugar elaborated by continuing,  "He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer to the inevitable roadblocks he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook. He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it. Mourdock himself said this morning on The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd, his definition of bi-partisanship is to get Democrats to support more conservative ideals.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said in a statement Tuesday night. "This is just one more example of the hostile takeover of the Republican Party that we've been working on since 2009." Translation: another die hard member for the party of "No". So once again the Republicans have put in play a sure thing, by bowing to Tea Party types, and hard line conservatives. President Obama carried Indiana by less than 1% in 2008. Current polling has Mitt Romney up 9 points in the Hoosier state. If that trend continues, Donnelly is going to have his hands full trying to defeat Mourdock in the fall. The question now is Mourdock is obviously the pick for Republicans. However, can he translate his hard line conservative message into an appealing tone for independents, and moderates of both parties? I guess we'll find out in November.