If Richard Lugar and I had a beer we could probably find a few things we agree on and a few we don’t. But he’s a rational, intelligent man. A very good man as far as I can tell. The fact that the Republican party – as it stands today – would toss a man like that really worries me. There’s no center to the party. It’s just angry folks unskilled in governing and especially the give and take of politics. They get the take, but have no idea of the give. Listen to this:
“’Richard Mourdock’s victory truly sends a message to the liberals in the Republican Party: voters are rejecting the policies that led to record debt and diminished economic freedom, and they will continue to be rejected in elections throughout America,’ said Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman who is now president of the Club for Growth.”
“The liberals in the Republican Party”? This guy’s got creeping paranoia all over his intellectual lawn. Rational Republicans are at a crossroads. Do they allow the tea party to drag them into that world or do they wrest it from them (can they wrest it from them?) and bring back the GOP that once – while had the disagreement of some liberals, at least garnered some respect for their abilities and willingness to compromise to make this country a better place. As soon as the party becomes more important than the country – which is the direction the Republicans have been charging in for a few years – the country is screwed. Welcome to screwed.
Mr. Lugar, your party, apparently, is over.
Luke Soiseth 
i dont live in iowa so i wouldnt have a vote, but i would never want a lifetime politician representing me who moved away decades ago and lives in another state. that bothers me. i know he’s not the only one, but the representatives should at a minimum live in the states the represent.
I agree with the moving away bit. Granted, most of their work is away once you get to that level, but at the very least, keeping a semblance of residence is called for. I don’t buy into “lifetime politician” or “career politician” being necessarily a bad thing; in fact, good men and women in that position grow their abilities, knowledge and connections over time and are then the most effective politicians. I wouldn’t fire my plumber because he’s a career plumber. And we have in place a system where we can vote them out if their work is no good. (Which you could argue is exactly what happened here.)
My concern in this situation is that by tossing out these learned members of congress for yet another green, intransigent newbie, the party is going to lose all of their moderate supporters. And if this is the case, the party will solidify into some angry little ball of pretty much all guys unwilling to play by any rules but the ones they make up as they go. And that is a problem for our nation.