Isn’t Dick Lugar conservative enough for the Republican Party? Is it really necessary to give him a primary challenge because he’s less than 100% unhinged? Is that what things have come to?
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Yes. This is not your grandfather’s – or even your father’s – Republican Party that is slouching toward Bethlehem.
its not about ideology. he, like Robert Bennet and Murkowski, is in favor of using the govt and working with dems to further their (conservative) agenda and help their constituents. Tea Party wants gridlock and govt shutdown- they are true radicals who want to take this country back to the 19th century. Anyone who works with dems has to go. Lugar is revered in Indiana so this may be a bad move for Demint and the Tea Party.
Lugar believes that government can be used as a positive agent of change and can do some things right. Today’s republican party can have none of that type of thinking.
your concern for republicans is touching, but why the hell should i care about GOP cannibalism?
this should seen not as a reason for grief, but as an opportunity to let the GOP in Indiana eat itself alive while fielding a strong Democratic candidate.
The best candidate from a purely view on issues view is Birch Bayh. Unless Indiana has the balls to vote for Andre Carson. They had it two years ago. Do they have it again? Does Carson have statewide ambitions?
Jesse Jackson could not run outside of Chicago. Indiana is MUCH more conservative.
Lugar doesn’t believe that foreign policy is primarily the venue of the Armed Services Committee. He believes that well-crafted agreements can save us a lot of money in military expenditures and keep us safe and promote US interests.
That’s why he will be primaried. He does not believe that “Shoot ’em all and let Allah sort them out” is an effective foreign policy.
Add Orrin Hatch to the list.
Dude,
when Bob Bennett of UTAH wasn’t conservative enough…you knew that the inmates were running it
Having lived in Indiana for 5+ years, Lugar is well-liked by people of both parties. Indiana’s primary is also one where you choose the party ballot at the polling place. I voted in ’98 in the primary and showed up at about noon, and I was the seventh person at my precinct to pick a Dem ballot in a fairly evenly split city.
1) Dems never put up a serious challenge to Dick Lugar. 2) In a primary situation, Indiana Dems will pull a Repub ballot if they want to have a say as to who gets elected. What worked in PA (party registration before the primary) doesn’t work in Indiana – a teabag challenge will go nowhere if it involves Dick Lugar.