Some candidates "are at their most likable in defeat," but Dick Lugar's "long, defensieve, election night statement" forcers the question, "Dick Lugar, poor loser?"
I am a better Republican than my party deserved, he tells us: “According to Congressional Quarterly vote studies, I supported President Reagan more often than any other Senator...”
The Lugar-Mourdock race is about core principles. Some people get that:
What all of this means is the NRA and other conservative groups don’t agree with former Senator Rick Santorum that “sometimes you take one for the team” by allowing even your principles to be negotiable.
Lugar is kind of confessing to the crime conservatives have been accusing him of, isn't he?
Republican Sen. Richard Lugar lobbied Democrats and independents Friday to cross party lines and save him next week in the political fight of his life.
There is the term RINO for "Republican in name only." We need a new term for people like columnist Peggy Noonan, the Conservatives Desperately Seeking Approval from The Other Side. Today, she offers her advice on the Lugar-Mourdock race.
Let's wade into an argument, and on what may well be the losing side.
It puts a strain on the whole family when Grampy gets grumpy, but, hey, it's a natural thing. A Journal & Courier columnist spots "Richard Lugar on an unfamiliar low road":
Lugar's guys ask whether the state treasurer, who keeps gaining in the polls ahead of the May 8 primary, is: "Incompetent? Careless? Tax Cheat?"
Can the Tea Party beat Dick Lugar? Yes, it's quite possible, says Allysia Finley, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer and assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com
No doubt you've noticed the endorsements: the Club for Growth for Richard Mourdock; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for Richard Lugar. There is an epic battle going on, and Indiana is right in the middle of it:
Big business and the Tea Party are at swords' points once again, with GOP Senate primaries for the second straight election becoming proxy battles in the war over the soul of the Republican Party.
Reaction from all over to the Lugar-Mourdock debate. Real Clear Politics notes the "No Sparks Fly" civility of the encounter.
Something to think about as we wait for the single Lugar-Mourdock debate tonight (7-8 p.m., check your listings but I do know it will be on WANE):
The Tea Party has lost a number of its top election targets this year, leaving Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) to emerge as public enemy No. 1 for national conservative groups — and poll numbers suggest they could get their man.
