Why Senator Dick Lugar is Out

Posted by Jeff Carter
on May 9th, 2012

Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar lost his primary bid yesterday. The spin is amazing.

Obama is spinning it to frame the new Republican party as uncompromising. The reality is the opposite. Republicans have been compromising for years. It’s the Democrats that don’t compromise. Fortunately for Republicans, I think that Democrats will lose the spin wars, and are totally misreading the election.

The spin is designed to try and get any one in the middle, if there is truly such a thing.

The liberal Chicago Tribune misses the point as well, and shows it is really good at eating from the Axelrod spoon that feeds them. Lugar lost not because he compromised on issues like national security and foreign policy. Lugar lost because he compromised on financial issues. He also has been there for 36 years. 36 years. Maybe it’s time for new thinking? A seat in Congress isn’t a permanent position.

The big issues this campaign are going to be Obamacare and how a candidate voted on financial issues. The Democratic Senate candidate from Indiana voted for Obamacare, for all the bailouts, and for higher spending and taxes. That is directly opposed from the mood held by the majority of the national electorate. Social issues take a back seat when you can’t find a job.

The Tea Party from its inception has been about fiscal accountability. Stop spending. No where do you see social issues, or foreign policy issues at the forefront of a Tea Party meeting. The old Republican lions of the Senate and House are being retired because they are out of step with this new line of thinking illustrated by people like Paul Ryan.

Trent Lott is now lobbying for a treaty that he firmly opposed as a sitting Senator. He will say his thinking evolved. However, I just think his checkbook evolved. Today’s electorate wants people that stand firm on principles-fiscal restraint principles being at the forefront.

Lugar hasn’t had a recent voting record that was stellar when it came to conservative fiscal principles. You can’t talk a good game and not vote a good game. The US is close to a financial cliff. The net present value tables of future liabilities are unbending. Unless we stop profligate spending now, we are doomed.

Lugar’s Republican opponent Richard Mourdock has said he will be a fiscal conservative if elected. I hope he gets elected so we will have a chance to find out. Sometimes politicians change their tune once they get into office. They worry about re-election rather than the things they campaigned on. We know his opponent isn’t a fiscal conservative.

This is a nationwide phenomena. Michigan has a Republican governor and legislature. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has followed through on campaign promises and is popular with a majority of the electorate. Yesterday, in the recall primary election Walker received more votes than his Democratic rivals. It will be a tough fight, but I think Walker will keep his seat as Governor of Wisconsin. That’s a good thing because one of the major fiscal problems our country, states and cities have is public employee unions.

UPDATE

On a different but similar vein, I am in favor of term limits for all elected officials.

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