Tea party favorite (vs Richard Lugar in IN republican senate primary) has Democrats hopeful
As the bitter primary battle between Richard Lugar and Richard Mourdock for the GOP nomination for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat, a lot of Democrats and Republicans have the same word in mind.
Nevada.
In 2010, the same Tea Party types who have provided the muscle for Mourdock’s campaign pushed Sharron Angle into the Republican nomination for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat. In Angle, the Tea Party found perhaps the only Republican in the state of Nevada that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., could have beaten.
That is why, for the past few months, we have been treated to the odd spectacle of seeing Hoosier Democrats all but openly support Mourdock’s extremely conservative candidacy. Whenever Mourdock and his legitimate supporters have sounded a theme – such as the attacks on Lugar’s residency – Democrats have stepped in right behind as a chorus. The result has been a kind of strange echo effect.
Democrats aren’t doing this because they agree with Mourdock, who has pledged to do away with almost all of government’s regulatory functions and return America to the happy care-free days of the early Industrial Revolution, when work weeks of seven days and 100 hours were the norm.
If Democrats could conjure up a dream candidate to run against, he or she would look an awful lot like Richard Mourdock.
First, there’s the fact that Mourdock filed suit against the Chrysler bailout, spending tax money and imperiling Hoosier jobs in the process. If there’s a better way to fire up the dispirited part of the Democratic base that is organized labor, Democrats haven’t found it. That issue alone could have a spill-over effect and persuade disgruntled progressives in the state to support not just the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., but also the party’s gubernatorial candidate, former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg. Donnelly and Gregg are conservative Democrats who aren’t likely to be able to make liberal hearts flutter without help.
Second, there’s the fact that a half-billion dollars in state funds keeps doing a disappearing/reappearing act. That probably isn’t Mourdock’s fault, but it doesn’t look good that it’s happening on his watch. If the state’s treasurer isn’t supposed to keep track of the state’s assets, then what’s he doing with his time?
Third, there’s Mourdock’s habit of auctioning himself off to every out-of-state conservative advocacy group there is. Again, part of this is not Mourdock’s fault. Because he hasn’t served in any legislative or truly executive capacity in government, he doesn’t have a record to point to. So, he has to make pledges to these groups in order to gain their support – and the advertising dollars that have driven his campaign. The impression this has left, though, is that of a guy willing to bargain away his independence for campaign cash.
It could be like Nevada all over again – with the Tea Party once more seizing defeat from the jaws of victory.
http://thestatehousefile.com/commentary-tea-party-favorite-has-democrats-hopeful/4655/
Go get 'em, teabaggers. The article says that Democrats didn't even run a candidate against Lugar in 2006, so replacing him in the primary would be much appreciated.
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