INDIANAPOLIS— Indiana's departing U.S.Sen. Richard is leaving the Senate with one last act of compromise in support of Congress' "fiscal cliff" deal.
The Republican will leave the Senate on Thursday after having cast 13,067 votes over nearly four decades in Washington. U.S.Rep. Joe Donnelly is being sworn in as Indiana's newest senator after defeating state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in November's election.
Lugar's final vote caps decades of work across party lines. That compromise helped lead to his ouster in last year's Republican primary by Mourdock.
Some would say this compromise contained something for everyone -- liberals got to put off considering any spending cuts, and conservatives got a cutback of how many peoples' taxes will go up. But as a libertarian, I look at it the way I do all compromises -- government grows. The only question there ever is is whether it grows a lot or grows a whole lot. Citing Lugar's "decades of work across party lines" seems like faint praise to me.
Anybody think Joe Donnelly will work across party lines to side with Republicans as much as Richard Lugar did to side with Democrats?
