Steve Benen makes a nice catch. He’s found proof-positive that the modern Republican Party is beyond redemption (at least, if you follow the criteria of former Republican senator and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth of Missouri). Danforth said that Dick Lugar should not be challenged with a serious primary candidate because he’s so well-respected and such an authority on foreign policy matters. But Lugar is getting a challenge and his challenger has a lot more support among Indiana’s Republican establishment than Lugar enjoys.
Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock will launch his primary challenge to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) on Tuesday with the support of a majority of both the state’s 92 Republican county chairmen and its state party executive committee, he told the Fix in a recent interview.
“I feel bad that he’s going to be humiliated by this list,” Mourdock said. […]
“The headline isn’t going to be, ‘Tea party candidate to take on Dick Lugar;’ it’s going to be, ‘GOP grassroots dumps Lugar,'” Mourdock said. “There is tremendous unrest and tremendous dissatisfaction, and that’s what got me in this race.”
If I am not mistaken, the Dems didn’t even bother to challenge Lugar in 2006, which was a good cycle for them. That wasn’t only because he was considered unbeatable, it was also a show of respect. Lugar can hold this seat for the Republicans for as long they want him to, but they want to make it a competitive race.
Now, Lugar could switch parties, but he wouldn’t feel very comfortable in the Democratic Party. I don’t think the Democratic Party would feel comfortable honoring his seniority and giving him an important committee to chair. It just doesn’t seem like a very good match. On the other hand, there is some value in flipping the allegiance of prominent politicians. It’s a constant back-and-forth between the value of clarity of message and party unity on the one hand, and expanding the tent to take in those who are sane on the other.
Having Lugar in the caucus would probably be marginally preferable to having a Tea Partier in the seat. But it’s a close call. The Democrats are supposed to stand for more than just sanity. But, hey, maybe in these times we ought to act as a refuge for the un-brain damaged. Less of a Big Tent than a Red Cross Tent.
