Say Good-Bye, Dick; Orrin’s Next

Posted on | May 9, 2012 | 23 Comments

Sen. Dick Lugar lost the Indiana GOP primary to challenger Richard Mourdock and it wasn’t even close: 61% for Mourdock, 39% for Lugar. The response from Republican leadership? RINO-tastic:

Looking toward the November election, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said two weeks ago that “it will probably make it more of a contest if Sen. Lugar is not the nominee, but I’m confident we’ll hold the seat.”
In a statement Tuesday night once the outcome was clear, Cornyn said Mourdock “has the NRSC’s full support and we are committed to helping elect him as Indiana’s next U.S. Senator in November.”

The NRSC is a corrupt incumbent-protection racket, and they don’t know how to cope with conservative challengers. Speaking of which, Orrin Hatch has just agreed to one debate with his primary opponent Dan Liljenquist:

Sen. Orrin Hatch and former state Sen. Dan Liljenquist have agreed to one debate before the Republican primary election June 26.
Hatch’s campaign manager Dave Hansen told KSL Radio on Tuesday that the senator has accepted an invitation a debate Liljenquist on the Doug Wright Show in June. A date and time has not been set.
“This will be the last one,” Hansen said.
And the only debate since Liljenquist narrowly forced the six-term senator into a primary at the state Republican Party convention last month. Hansen said Hatch isn’t doing any other debates.
Liljenquist is attempting to turn the tables on Hatch, saying that when Hatch first ran in 1976 he called for eight debates so that Utahns could see the candidates side-by-side and hear their positions.
“We expect the same courtesy from Sen. Hatch,” Liljenquist told KSL Radio. . . .
“Why does Sen. Hatch feel he is entitled to run out the clock as he runs for his seventh term and simply refuse to debate?”

DAN LILJENQUIST for U.S. SENATE

Category: Election 2012, Indiana, Republicans, Senate, Tea Party, Utah

Comments

23 Responses to “Say Good-Bye, Dick; Orrin’s Next”

Adjoran
May 9th, 2012 @ 7:53 am

Hatch won’t lose the primary – he was within a fraction of a percentage of winning the convention by enough to avoid one altogether. Bennett would have won the primary in 2010, too – he had a strong approval rating among Utah voters – but he took it for granted, didn’t work to get his people to the convention (assuming he would coast to victory anyway) and it was so dominated by the Tea Party activists that he finished third and so wasn’t on the ballot.

Hatch didn’t make that mistake, and Liljenquist isn’t nearly as strong a challenger as Mike Lee was.
M. Thompson
May 9th, 2012 @ 8:10 am

The great RHINO Hunt of 2012 is underway.
Bob Belvedere
May 9th, 2012 @ 8:27 am

It seems as if the voters of Indiana took Dickie into his den and did the honorable thing for him.
Bob Belvedere
May 9th, 2012 @ 8:28 am

Let’s hope, Adj, that you end up being wrong on this one.
pabarge
May 9th, 2012 @ 9:31 am

Never mind Orin Hatch, get Lindsey Graham.
99counties » Obama Wins NC Primary and Gay Marriage Ban Passes
May 9th, 2012 @ 9:41 am

[…] the Tea Party in 2012. Thanks for your six terms of service, Sen Lugar. But its time to go. Is Hatch next? They do breeding pairs in the Zululand Rhino […]
Election Inspection: Que Pasa « The Camp Of The Saints
May 9th, 2012 @ 10:34 am

[…] The Other McCain, Stacy McCain reporting: Sen. Dick Lugar lost the Indiana GOP primary to challenger Richard Mourdock and it wasn’t even […]
Michael Jolley
May 9th, 2012 @ 10:54 am

I volunteered on Mike Lee’s campaign and am now volunteering on Dan Liljenquist’s. As awesome as Lee was, Dan Liljenquist is a stronger candidate. If Dan can get enough money to share his message with Utah voters, he’ll win.
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves"
May 9th, 2012 @ 11:51 am

“Congratulations to Indiana”…

“Indiana wins the Republican primary 61% to 39%—with a little help from the Tea Party.”…
Jon Camp
May 9th, 2012 @ 12:20 pm

Shortly after the caucuses, I received a mailer from Mr. Hatch, claiming he’d “won” the caucuses with 59% of the vote. Considering he needed 60% to actually “win” (avoid the primary), that reeked of desperation to me. I’ll be voting for Liljenquist on June 26th. I wish I lived a mile farther south so I’d be in the new 4th district and could vote for Mia Love too. Currently in Chaffetz’s district, at least, though with the new boundaries coming up I’m not sure who I’ll be voting for this fall, since he’ll be staying 3rd district and I’ll be changing to 2nd 🙁
ThePaganTemple
May 9th, 2012 @ 12:44 pm

What was funny about this was the Democrats threatening to try to win the seat if Luger lost the primary. As long as Luger had the seat, they knew they didn’t have to worry about any opposition from him, he was one of the “reasonable moderates”.

They could count on him to support their judicial nominees, break Republican filibusters when possible, and of course “compromise” on bills. So they wouldn’t even bother to put up more than token resistance to him, because in a lot of ways him being there was actually better for them.

But once they saw he was probably going to lose, they were all like “We-we-we-we’re warning you, if you don’t put Dick Luger back in that Senate seat we’ll-we’ll-we’ll try to win the damn thing”. Hahahahahahahaha
Finrod Felagund
May 9th, 2012 @ 12:49 pm

When I loaded the main page of this blog, there was already a Joe Donnelley banner ad “Don’t let the Tea Party take over the Senate” with pictures of Herman Cain and Rick Santorum next to Richard Mourdock.

I don’t think they’re getting a good return on their ad investment running their ads here.
David R
May 9th, 2012 @ 1:33 pm

They do realize they’re in Indiana, not Deleware, right?
Wombat_socho
May 9th, 2012 @ 1:42 pm

SOON.
Bob Belvedere
May 9th, 2012 @ 1:49 pm

From your keyboard to God’s ears.
Adjoran
May 9th, 2012 @ 3:49 pm

Fat chance. For starters, you will need at least $2 million in guaranteed funds before you could entice anyone to oppose him in a primary – except maybe Andre Bauer, who would do it for laughs and a gallon of Valu-Rite Hot Tub Sanitizer. Why? Because in South Carolina, people who challenge incumbents and lose are never heard from again. They don’t vanish; they become irrelevant. Politicians hate it when that happens.

In fact, the only incumbent federal officeholder I can recall losing his party primary was Bob Inglis in 2010, who had angered voters by opposing the Iraq surge and voting for TARP, and he was opposed by a popular prosecutor, Trey Gowdy. Even John Jenrette, who had accepted a $20,000 bribe in the ABSCAM scandal and told the undercover agents “I have larceny in my heart” and “In this town, money talks and bulls**t walks” won his primary.
Adjoran
May 9th, 2012 @ 3:51 pm

Click it! They have to pay more for clicks – I try to click all the leftist ads on conservative sites.
Quartermaster
May 9th, 2012 @ 4:24 pm

From your fingers to God’s eyes.
ThePaganTemple
May 9th, 2012 @ 5:03 pm

It’s really telling when Democrats make statements like that BEFORE a primary, when they should be keeping their mouths shut and planning their campaign strategies. No, as upset as the RINOs might well be over Luger’s defeat, the Democrats are even more upset.
Bob Belvedere
May 9th, 2012 @ 6:07 pm

I didn’t think of that – thanks, Adj.
richard mcenroe
May 9th, 2012 @ 8:33 pm

Now the folks of Utah have seen it’s possible.
ThePaganTemple
May 9th, 2012 @ 10:49 pm

I bet you have to clear your cache every night don’t you?
ThePaganTemple
May 10th, 2012 @ 1:00 am

I have to agree, Graham is unlikely to ever lose that seat. Too many military veterans there who see him as their champion. Plus there are more RINOs in SC than people think. It was no accident John McCain won the SC primary in a walk.