Thread: Lugar going to be bashed for not being sufficiently hostile

From: South Chicagoan

Dick Lugar is a long-time member of the U.S. Senate (Farrah Fawcett was still Majors – and hot – back when he first got elected) and a part of the Republican Party establishment.

Which as far as the conservative ideologues are concerned, makes him suspect. The 79-year-old from Indianapolis (he once was mayor of that Midwestern city) who is one of the most senior members of the U.S. Senate plans to run again when his current term ends in 2012.

THAT HAS THE ideologues already beginning their rhetoric that claims Lugar has been around for too long, and is too out of touch with the way the conservatives want things done these days.

These people have their gripes against Lugar, whom I have always regarded as a part of the political establishment and definitely NOT someone espousing some sort of radical thought.

Yet perhaps if he were peddling outrageous trash, these ideologues would be willing to have him stick around the Senate.

Particularly when it comes to ethnic issues. It seems that Lugar is seen as too sympathetic to the growing Latino population. So he must go. Off with his head. Replace him with an ideologue who will spout the appropriate, mean-spirited rhetoric that they want to hear.

LUGAR GETS DINGED because, throughout the years, he has believed that the DREAM Act – which is meant to give non-citizens who have lived the bulk of their lives in this country a chance at citizenship if they show promise by continuing their education or serving in the military – is a good idea.

He was one of the few GOP types who voted for the bill when the issue in general came up back in December (remember how it was killed off through procedural measures, and never actually came up for a final vote?). In fact, Lugar has actually been willing to let his name be used as a sponsor of this radical (only to the ideologues) idea.

He and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., made a nice Illinois/Indiana political pairing that tried to push for the idea – unlike Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who seems to think his dreams of someday running for president get boosted by bashing Illinois on issues (an aspect best debated in another commentary).

Of course, that too makes him suspect – a willingness to try to work with politicians of other political parties because one wants something of substance to be accomplished on a specific issue.

NOW I CAN be as politically partisan as anybody else. But there are times when such ideas ought to be set aside for the good of the populace.

Of course, the conservative ideologues don’t see things that way. They don’t like the fact that Lugar has been willing to be supportive of some ideas touted by Democrats.

I also couldn’t help but notice reports indicating that some of these ideologues don’t like the fact that Lugar didn’t join in the heavy Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s two appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States.

They particularly still seem to be hung up on Sonia Sotomayor, the Nuyorican (someone of Puerto Rican descent who was born and raised in New York City) who became the first Latina ever chosen to serve on the nation’s high court.

IF YOU DOUBT me, consider the Indianapolis Star newspaper, which reported of the Tea Party activist groups that met in rural Tipton, Ind., to determine how to go about beating Lugar.

They made sure to point out that while they were meeting in an “all-Americanâ€

Moving to General Discussion.