Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar applauded the opening of the Interim Central Reference Laboratory in Odessa, Ukraine, this week, announcing that it will be instrumental in researching dangerous pathogens used by bioterrorists.The level-3 bio-safety lab, which is the first built under the expanded authority of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, will be used to study anthrax, tularemia and Q fever as well as other dangerous pathogens.“The continuing cooperation of Nunn-Lugar partners has improved safety for all people against weapons of mass destruction and potential terrorist use, in addition to advancements in the prevention of pandemics and public health consequences,” Lugar...

What is the current administration’s endgame in Eastern Europe? Barack Obama has condemned Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine and called on all Americans to impose sanctions on Russia even if doing so hurts the United States economy. His statements make him sound like a strong ally of Ukraine, ready to do whatever it takes to protect innocents from harm. But there is more to this story than meets the eye. When you examine Obama’s career, you find that he has done everything in his power to encourage the current invasion. Just seven months after Obama was sworn in as a...

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - U. S. Senator Richard Lugar died Sunday morning, according to a release from the Lugar Center. Lugar was a senator from 1977 to 2013, before that serving as Mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1975. After his career in politics, Lugar continued work through the Lugar Center, focused on global food security and aid effectiveness. He was a professor at Indiana University and led the Richard G. Lugar Symposium for Tomorrow’s Leaders at the University of Indianapolis. He held 46 honorary degrees from universities around the country, and Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon him the rank of...

Former Indiana Senator Richard G. Lugar became the first high profile Republican this week to endorse President Obama’s hugely controversial nuclear deal with Iran’s revolutionary Islamic government. If Congress is unable to override an expected presidential veto, in addition to $150 billion in immediate sanctions relief, the deal will guarantee the same radical Iranian regime that openly calls for the annihilation of an entire nation state both the legal right and practical ability to develop an industrial scale nuclear weapons infrastructure along with the intercontinental ballistic missile systems necessary to deliver nuclear payloads anywhere on earth. Speaking on MSNBC, the...

The conservative group Club for Growth has changed gears and is supporting establishment GOP candidates in primaries. Launched a decade before the tea party made life difficult for moderate Republicans, the club quickly rose to the political forefront while supporting challengers to incumbent Republicans who it felt were not conservative enough, according to the National Journal. In 2012, the fiscally conservative organization backed tea party candidate Richard Mourdock’s challenge to Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar and vilified veteran Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch for his voting record. The group also targeted 10 moderate House Republicans. But the political action committee has suddenly...

Mississippians appreciate Sen. Thad Cochran because he has been so effective for our state and our people. He recognized the federal disaster assistance laws that were in place before Hurricane Katrina were grossly insufficient to deal with the worst natural disaster in American history. Because of the respect he enjoys and the influence he wields on behalf of our state, he led the effort that passed new emergency disaster assistance laws that not only helped the Coast rebuild bigger and better after the storm, but his legislation became the model for future disaster assistance. This is but one obvious reason...

Serendipity: A happy chance or accident. Precisely the opposite of what happened to Senator Dick Lugar last Tuesday in Indiana. At the risk of being redundant, I wrote at the time of the 2010 elections that it wasn’t over ’til it’s over, but that the American Tea Party Patriots had put a new face on American politics. I said that the ‘Republicans-in-name-only’, the ones not voted out in the 2010 sweep of the US House of Representatives, were not the only ones who had to look to their seats in the upcoming 2012 primaries, House and Senate races. I’ve also...

Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana lost his party’s nomination tonight because he had lost touch with the party’s grassroots. Since his election to the Senate in 1976, Lugar had cut a profile as a moderate Republican: He had supported the ethanol mandate, backed the Brady Bill, and opposed the Iraq surge. In previous cycles, Republicans had forgiven Lugar his ideological transgressions, but in recent years, he had become more brazen. Not only did Lugar support the DREAM Act; he cosponsored it. Not only did he vote for New START, he spoke forcefully in its favor. True, Lugar wasn’t Arlen Specter...

Sen. Richard Lugar, the third longest-serving member of the Senate, went down to a primary defeat tonight to his Tea Party-backed opponent in the Republican primary. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, backed by tea partiers and conservative campaign groups outside the state, ousted Lugar in Indiana’s GOP primary, the Associated Press projected. Mourdock will face Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly in November. In Lugar, the Senate would lose one of its few remaining members with a habit of bipartisanship. In Mourdock, Lugar has been unseated by a mild-mannered, twice-elected statewide official who wants to eliminate five federal departments and cut more spending...

FRANKFORT, Ind. — Sen. Dick Lugar is accusing tea party members of trespassing on his family farm and erecting ‘Retire Lugar’ signs on the eve of the Senate primary. The six-term Republican incumbent said Monday he was alerted by his son that members of the Owen County tea party climbed over a fence at his Marion County farm to take down his campaign signs and put up their own. “[They] had their pictures taken in front of a sign that said, ‘Dick Lugar, tree farmer of the year, 2003,’” Lugar said during a stop at an assisted living facility, speaking...

Former Republican Rep. Tom Davis told The Hill newspaper: “The middle is getting squeezed,” but his comment vastly understates the crisis in the capital. Activists in both parties have declared war on moderates. The ideological gap between the two parties is widening rapidly. Paralysis is pervasive. Political scientist Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, who studies voting patterns, told the National Journal: “We are clearly as conflicted as we’ve been since 1905. The parties are, I think, completely dysfunctional and incapable of acting on major policy.” The National Journal reports that as recently as 1999, more than half of...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The tea party upstart who is trying to dislodge one of the U.S. Senate's most respected Republicans is about to cry.Minutes into his stump speech at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner here, as hundreds of Republicans poke at chicken and mini-potatoes, Richard Mourdock chokes up, his voice cracking over the sound system, all the way to the bar at the back of the room."Honestly, as I look at our nation's capital, I feel more frustrated with Republicans than Democrats," says Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer. But "bipartisanship has taken us to the brink of bankruptcy. It...

Rick Santorum Backs Richard Mourdock in Indiana Senate Race By Shushannah Walshe | ABC OTUS News Rick Santorum has weighed in on the fierce primary battle in the Indiana senate race. The former presidential candidate tweeted his support of State Treasurer Richard Mourdock over longtime Sen. Dick Lugar. @RickSantorum: I encourage Hoosiers to help GOTV for @RichardMourdock. If I lived in Indiana he'd have my vote in Tuesday's #INSen race. Lugar has held the seat since 1976, but Tea Party favorite Richard Mourdock is waging a serious challenge and is leading in state polls. Mourdock also has the backing of...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Sen. Richard Lugar is asking Democrats and independents to cross party lines and save him next week in the political fight of his life. The six-term senator said Friday he needs votes from outside his own party if he is to survive Tuesday's GOP primary. Recent polling has shown Lugar trailing tea party-backed state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Lugar told reporters he is best suited to represent Jewish and female Hoosiers along with ethnic minorities.

Radio ad running in Indiana highlighting Republican Dick Lugar's anti-record.

It sure doesn’t look like Richard Lugar is long for the political world. The news that the major super PAC supporting his candidacy is bailing on him a week before the Republican primary reinforces a growing consensus that the six-term Indiana senator will likely be defeated next Tuesday by his conservative challenger, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Under one scenario, this could be a fortuitous development for Democrats, since Lugar, with his broad popularity outside the Republican Party, would probably defeat the Democratic candidate, Rep. Joe Donnelly, with ease. By contrast, Democrats are hopeful they could exploit Mourdock’s Tea Party politics...

With all the attention being paid to the Presidential race, not much national press has been dedicated to some of the early Senate primaries. Three Republican Senate primaries have been held to date in states with solid Democratic incumbents: Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Republicans have seen a guaranteed incumbent victory in Mississippi, and are now moving on to the Indiana primary. This makes the Indiana Senate race the first election this year in which an incumbent Senator has a valid chance of losing his seat in the primary. From a conservative point of view, the case against Senator Lugar...

Dear Tea Party Supporters,We have received word from the Richard Mourdock for Indiana U.S. Senate campaign that they are within 1 POINT of RINO Sen. Dick Lugar!   Just 3 weeks ago, we were 6 points down in the race so we are surging at just the right time.  . There are only 12 days left until Tea Party Express-endorsed State Treasurer Richard Mourdock faces Obama’s “Favorite” Republican, Senator Dick Lugar, in the Indiana U.S. Senate Primary.  We need your support to make sure that Mourdock continues his surge in the polls.  . Here is our new TV ad that...

Longtime Indiana Senator Dick Lugar is trailing state Treasurer Richard Mourdock by five points in the closely watched Republican primary, according to a new poll on behalf of Citizens United. The survey shows Mourdock leading with 44 percent and Lugar at 39 percent, with nearly 17 percent of voters still undecided. Lugar supporters point out that Citizens United is backing Mourdock in the May 8 primary, however. Both candidates have seen their favorable numbers plummet and the nastiness is expected to increase with less than two weeks left. From Politico: The Club for Growth has just reserved another $421,000 of...

I join commonsense conservatives in endorsing Richard Mourdock to be the next Senator from Indiana. Conservatives of all stripes are uniting behind Richard Mourdock. It’s not just Indiana that benefits from sending the right Senator to serve for the right reasons; the nation as a whole benefits, and that is one reason why the eyes of so many around the nation are focused on the Indiana race.   Indiana deserves a conservative in the Senate who will fight for the Hoosier State, uphold our Constitution, and not just go along to get along with the vested interests of the permanent...