Dump Dick Lugar
Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN) ties with Orrin Hatch as the longest serving Republican in the Senate. When Lugar faces primary voters next year, Republicans should choose someone else. Here are five reasons why.
1) He’s Fiscally Irresponsible.
With the exception of his opposition to ObamaCare, Lugar has gotten nearly all the big issues wrong when it comes to spending. In 2008, he voted in favor of TARP and bailouts for Fannie and Freddie and the auto industry. In 2009, Lugar voted for expansion of CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) and against a bill to return unused TARP funds. Lugar has also consistently opposed efforts to place a moratorium on earmarks. In times that call for austerity, Lugar’s susceptibility to big spending makes him a liability.
2) He’s a Foe of the Second Amendment.
In the aftermath of the Tucson shootings, Senator Lugar called for the re-imposition of the expired ban on assault weapons. Meanwhile, even President Obama edged away from easy answers, and most Democrats have political sense enough to know that the American people don’t want more gun control laws.
Lugar’s support for gun control has been a hallmark of his career. Lugar holds a career “F” rating from Gun Owners of America. In 2009, Lugar voted to uphold the D.C. gun ban, while the Democratic Senate voted to overturn it by a 62-36 margin. In an era when Second Amendment advocacy is bipartisan, Lugar’s support for more gun control is a political anachronism.
3) He Supports Amnesty and He’s Weak on Illegal Immigration.
Senator Lugar was a key backer of the attempt to pass the DREAM Act. His voting record shows a clear support for amnesty, federal funding for sanctuary cities, and allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security.
4) His Version of Bipartisanship Is Going Along with the Democrats.
The media commonly praises Lugar for being bi-partisan. However, for Lugar, bipartisanship doesn’t mean getting Democrats to back conservative measures, or even half-measures, in the interests of the American people. It means voting with the Democrats.
Lugar supported the Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Kagan and Justice Sotomayor as well as the confirmation of Eric Holder for attorney general, despite serious questions about the fitness and qualification of these nominees. Lugar also opposed the McCain amendment to the START treaty to protect our nation’s missile defense program.
On any number of issues that conservatives needed to win, Lugar delivered votes for the Democrats and gave them bipartisan cover.
I would vote for a Democrat before I would vote for this guy and I have voted Republican since the 1960′s. He offers nothing and could not win a national election. He should be voted out of his current office in 2012.
Christine O’Donnell did the GOP and conservatives a great service by knocking off Castle. Lugar is like Castle, he is pompous, self-important, dull, and old, and it will be good to see him gone.
In addition to all that, he was one of the major shills for getting us into Clinton’s pointless and wrongheaded against the Serbs back in the 90s.
Come on, that is the silliest thing I have heard in my life. O’Donnell runs for office to make money and pay bills. She had nothing to run on, her beliefs were out of the mainstream in her state. She never had a chance to win. The question is, do you want to win elections or make points? Because of incompetent people like her running, we lost the Senate. Maybe you liked that, which is sad!
We have way to many dick lugars in congress.Lindsey graham.Suddenly pretending he’s a re-born conservative.Don’t buy it;We have presidential wanna be’s who are liberal lapdogs.lIKe george H.W.bush,george.W.bush.Both were liberal lapdogs on liberal social,and domestic issues.Just last night on the o’reilly factor.Laura ingraham showed,A recent forum with george w.bush.accusing those opposed to amnesty for illegal aliens,as the same ism’s as were the italians,and the jews.convieniently.George w.kennedy,clinton,obama bush.didn’t mention is the law,and due process assimilations.that used to be applied to new immigrants.the entire bush family.are part of the new world order,anti-constitution family tree.so are those,like mike huckabee,hayley barbour,newt gingrich,mitch daniels.All believe we are a nation of government pimps for,flunkies,and the lawless.And not a nation of laws.Mike huckabee scolded the tea party calling them extremist,and ignorant of how government is to be run.Which he said to comprimise with democrats.not protect,and defend their oath of office,the constitution,and the declaration of independence.The only difference between these liberal suck-ups,and liberals.Is like a divorce preceeding fight for who gets custody of the money.Other than that.They have no respect for our founding pricipals,documents,laws,or beliefs.And will help democrats finish off america.Because they are eye on the prize,political hacks,and not duty to,and love of country,and all it stands for.
Thank you for this informative post. I recently sent a letter to the editor with the exact same sentiment. I plan on sending more as the election gets closer. Lugar will be 82 by Nov. 2012. He is too old and has served long enough-40 years-come on.
Being an ex Hoosier, my experience with most of my fellow Hoosiers was they think Lugar is one of the German gun family.
As a current Hoosier, I can’t agree more. Lugar is past his prime, and it’s time for some new blood.
Now the important question, who can we support. The field was wide open for replacing Bayh, and we got party apparatchik Dan Coats. There were several other good conservatives in the running, but there were to many choices. So, name recognition won the day.
That’s also why we still have Dan Burton–too many running against him in the primary and even though Burton got less than 50% of the votes, no one else came close. But at least Burton is reasonably conservative.
To find ONE person, conservative and preferably personable and well-spoken, will be difficult. But I agree it’s time for Dick to retire. Once he was bright and conservative. Now? Not so much. And he IS too old.
Yeah, it’s high time this Lugar fossil leaves. He is a democrat that wears a Republican badge…. That’s what called a RINO. For years I held my nose and voted a straight “R”… Based solely on the possibility of some kind of moral/family values and fiscal responsibility that might come to reality from their lies on the campaign trail. However, things are different now. The Tea Party is coming into FULL recognition…. Even MSNBC has stopped slamming it as astro turf, they just whine now.
One person posted the he/she would vote democrat over Lugar. I will do that also if that Lugar somehow keeps the GOP ticket. Lugar must go away like Mike Castle did. It’s better to have the enemy in your sights then a traitor in your ranks. My vote will be to get rid of the traitor to my party.
I refuse to renew my GOP membership and donate to the GOP anymore BECAUSE they support that Lugar. Any more donations will be for local people. The way the GOP trashed O’donnell and supported that Mike Castle was dastardly.
In 2010 the Tea Party had less then one year to try and do something, they picked a few candidates without doing a full search. Go figure since the Tea Party was brand new, it was getting organized…. Fledgling is a good word. The Tea Party has learned, and we will do much better next time in the 2012.
Anyway, this is a very good article, well written and greatly appreciated.
.
<b/“It’s better to have the enemy in your sights then a traitor in your ranks. “</b/
Well said. RINOs have actually done us more harm than Democrats.
In other words. . . . he is a RINO, and needs to go!!!
Sen. Lugar has been on my RINO list for years, and it’s high time Indiana voters put him out to pasture. This is an ideal year to do so, with a strong demonstration of conservatism in Indiana, and an urgent need to get rid of the so-called elitists that are ruining the Republican Party resurgence. Voters must realize that the Democrat plan, under Obama, has been to weaken our nation and create a series of crises that can serve to impose laws that infringe on our Constitution. The end game is to impose socialism, then Marxism, with or without Muslim flavor. All this is being imposed into our thinking by way of the good influences of environmental concerns. Read “Set up and Sold Out” by Holly Swanson for a very convincing expose of the whole scenario. Getting rid of the RINOs in Congress (and everywhere) and replacing them with true conservatives is the first step in thwarting Obama’s plans.
With Democrat leaders like Nancy Pelosi (“Natural gas isn’t a hydrocarbon fuel, everybody knows that.”) and Chuck Schumer (“You know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a President.”), replacing them with even slightly intelligent conservatives should improve the quality of knowledge in Congress tremendously.
As regards point #3,
Gary and North Indianapolis would be the replacement labor pool and tenant market; pardon Hoosier bigwigs for tending to be soft on illegal immigration. Besides, Indiana and Indianapolis having the reputation as the center of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan revival keeps a lot of minorities in check.
i’d like to get rid of lugar, too. however, you can’t beat something with nothing. got any replacements in mind? i’m not aware of any strong primary opponents.
Mike Pence just announced he’s not running for president; he can more or less decide whether he wants to be governor or senator. No one in the state could beat him unless Larry Bird (D) decides to run for office.
Getting Mike Pence to switch from seeking the Governor to seeking the US Senate may be worth it. In many cases, a Dem Hoosier Governor, provided he doesnt plan on reviving a lot of bureacracy post-Mitch the Blade, can be much more conservative than a Republican counterpart.
Valid point. There are contenders in the works. The Tea Party is discussing the issue, and all of the groups will be united with ONE specific candidate to support. The most important effort at this point in time is to educate Indiana Conservatives as to just what this Dick Lugar is. People will understand that the 112th congress has just opened it’s doors for business, and that the actual candidate to defeat Lugar will be making the scene at the appropriate time.
.
Just one more reason there needs to be term limits on all offices.
We need principled conservatives. I am sick of “go along to get along” Republicans. Democrats never “go along to get along.” And there are no “maverick” Democrats.
As a Hoosier we question his motives for running since he is 79 years old, he stands shoulder to shoulder with “Jack booted thugs” Durbin on the Dream Act with petitioned amnesty for all and; he pushed a new weapons treaty with a declining Russia where we must request permission to put in missile defense. This is not lost on the majority of Indiana voters. We are all searching for representative government.
Sorry BUT,you people lost a chance to make a difference.BUT alas,you voted McCain back in.He now thinks Obama has changed his way of thinking. Too many nights in the ground cage are showing.
I’m a Hoosier that understands Dick Lugar lives in Washington D.C. more than he does in Indiana. The problem is that these guys can never be un-elected, due to our current system. Term limits are not the answer, but then what is?
All you have to do is listen to this guy, for any length of time and he will reveal himself as someone I wouldn’t even dog sit my two miniature schnauzers. If spine was all it took to be a senator, lugee would be left out of the running. He has no spine and he has not principles but, I do think he knows how to make a buck for himself. He’s as bad as that other idiot lamar, suspenders, alexander, who couldn’t find his way out of washington for fear of leaving more of his money behind. These are two of the most unprincipled, politicans in dc, and they can’t even compare to orral hatch.
Can’t we find someone who has some real world experience running things? Why do we have to looking for a perpetual politician without any skills, experience and knowledge of how business runs.
I am tired of “professional politicians” eating out of the government trough
WE SAID THE LAST TWO ELECTIONS THAT THE TWO DICKS-DICK DERBEN & DICK LUGAR WERE [QUOTE] DEMOCRATS IN WOLFS CLOTHING AND NEEDED TO BE FIRED.THEY VOTED ALONG WITH THE DEMOCRATS A LOT.THEY VOTED FOR THE DREAM ACT,CITEING THE MANY THINGS THE ILLEGALS COULD NOT DO,BUT THEY KNEW OBAMA WOULD SIGN AN EXECTIVE ORDER LETTING THEM DO ALL THE THINGS THE DREAM ACT SAID THEY COULD NOT DO.WE NEED SOMEONE LIKE MIKE PENCE TO TAKE HIS PLACE,AND SOMEONE LIKE JOHN THUME TO TAKE OBAMAS PLACE.FOR SURE -FIRE LUGARand OBAMA.
Give me a break, I’m a Republican and I’m sick of this garbage. Do you want to take the Senate back or not? Look, Lugar will win easily against any Democrat, and it won’t cost much money to do. The extra money can be used to take back seats in New Mexico, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Virginia and others from the Democrats. We seem to be having a personal Civil War between those who want you to agree 99 to 100 percent of the time with them, and going after those who do not. Their hero Ronald Reagan would not be welcome in today’s party, and guess what, he would be out there supporting Richard Lugar. Try to pick appropriate fights, but don’t give us more O’Donnell’s, Angle’s and Buck’s. Also, stop getting all of your information from Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Governor Daniels was so right. Remember, compromise is not a bad thing. If you didn’t compromise in your marriages, you would be divorced. I know many of you will go after me and call me a RINO (which is not a term intelligent people use), but so be it. I have a backbone and will stand up to the extremes on both sides!