I was a Political Science major in college. One of the classes I took was on state government, and as part of that class, everybody had to do a report on the politics of a randomly-assigned state. I happened to have been assigned Indiana. So I dug into the books in the library (back when that’s how you had to do research!) and read all about the huge influence of the KKK in Indiana early in the 20th century (seriously, huge influence), the Indianapolis unigov, and famous Indiana politicians: Bayh père et fils, Dan Coats, Dan Burton, Mark Souder, and of course Vice President Potatoe. Nobody had been around Indiana politics longer, though, than Tricky Dick’s “Favorite Mayor”, Dick Lugar. And tonight, he is no more.
Despite losing to a Tea Party-backed candidate, it would be wrong to say that he was upended like Mike Castle or Sue Lowden. By most accounts, Lugar was relatively out of touch with his constituents and ran a terrible campaign. Much like the Cold War, Lugar lost the battle more than his opponent won it. After six terms when you no longer live in the state, these things happen.
Even so, the manner in which Richard Mourdock ran his campaign still bodes ill for the future of the republic. Dick Lugar was no moderate Republican. He was conservative, even if he would waver from time to time on issues like gun control. What really bothered the Tea Party, however, and what Mourdock ran against, was Lugar’s position on things like securing Russian nukes, not punishing the children of undocumented immigrants, and voting for Democratic judicial nominees. For the crime of working with Democrats on the Nunn-Lugar Bill and the START treaty, Mourdock painted Lugar as Obama’s BFF (and I doubt the rainbow symbology was accidental). As of today, Indiana Republicans won’t have to worry about any more friendly gestures towards a Democrat. I’m willing to bet, though, that soon we will be hearing from Lugar about partisanship à la Chuck Hagel.
Dick Lugar is probably not a politician I would have voted for, but he did believe in something that fewer and fewer Republicans believe these days: that the government has a valid role in the world, and that working together across party lines sometimes has to be done for the betterment of the country. After today’s primary election, that’s one fewer vote in the Senate for the occasional bipartisanship.