A stellar political career has come to an abrupt end.
In a political shocker, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana lost his re-election bid in the state’s Republican primary Tuesday, ending the 36-year career of a respected GOP elder statesman. His unexpected loss to Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock handed the right-wing movement its biggest upset victory so far in the 2012 elections.
The 80-year-old Lugar had hoped for a 7th and final term before retiring, but the voters of Indiana had other ideas. “Serving the people of Indiana in the United States Senate has been the greatest honor of my public life,” Lugar said with a conciliatory tone during his concession speech. But he used a written statement to admonish Mourdock’s “unrelenting partisan mind-set” and warned that “he will achieve little as a legislator” unless he changes his strict conservatism on governing.
On the other hand, Mourdock praised Lugar as “a truly great public servant” as he tried to move past the negative tone of the primary. “This race is not about animosity,” he said. “It is about the direction of the Republican Party.”
Defeating an incumbent Senator is rare in politics, but now Lugar finds himself in that rare number. Mourdock, who is Indiana’s State Treasurer, will now face a Democratic rival in the fall.
Disclosure: I am a long-time supporter of *Term Limits* so the very idea of anyone holding onto his seat of power for 36 YEARS in the Senate or Congress is abhorrent to me. That Sen. Lugar, at 80 yrs of age, still didn't know when to Let.Go. only serves to strengthen the case, IMO, for term limits. That said. The GOP has a Frankenstein on its hands and that Monster is eating them alive.