Richard Mourdock: I Hate Bipartisanship - YouTube

Bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to a Republican point of view.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I thought the talking point was that the Tea Party was gone, and not a factor?

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

He was a class act. I can't say if he was out of touch with his constituents, or too old , but these are his parting words that touched me:

If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer to the inevitable roadblocks he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook. He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it.
This is not conducive to problem solving and governance. And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator. Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve. The most consequential of these is stabilizing and reversing the Federal debt in an era when millions of baby boomers are retiring. There is little likelihood that either party will be able to impose their favored budget solutions on the other without some degree of compromise.

Unfortunately, we have an increasing number of legislators in both parties who have adopted an unrelenting partisan viewpoint. This shows up in countless vote studies that find diminishing intersections between Democrat and Republican positions. Partisans at both ends of the political spectrum are dominating the political debate in our country. And partisan groups, including outside groups that spent millions against me in this race, are determined to see that this continues. They have worked to make it as difficult as possible for a legislator of either party to hold independent views or engage in constructive compromise. If that attitude prevails in American politics, our government will remain mired in the dysfunction we have witnessed during the last several years. And I believe that if this attitude expands in the Republican Party, we will be relegated to minority status. Parties don't succeed for long if they stop appealing to voters who may disagree with them on some issues.

Legislators should have an ideological grounding and strong beliefs identifiable to their constituents. I believe I have offered that throughout my career. But ideology cannot be a substitute for a determination to think for yourself, for a willingness to study an issue objectively, and for the fortitude to sometimes disagree with your party or even your constituents. Like Edmund Burke, I believe leaders owe the people they represent their best judgment.

Too often bipartisanship is equated with centrism or deal cutting. Bipartisanship is not the opposite of principle. One can be very conservative or very liberal and still have a bipartisan mindset. Such a mindset acknowledges that the other party is also patriotic and may have some good ideas. It acknowledges that national unity is important, and that aggressive partisanship deepens cynicism, sharpens political vendettas, and depletes the national reserve of good will that is critical to our survival in hard times. Certainly this was understood by President Reagan, who worked with Democrats frequently and showed flexibility that would be ridiculed today – from assenting to tax increases in the 1983 Social Security fix, to compromising on landmark tax reform legislation in 1986, to advancing arms control agreements in his second term.

I don't remember a time when so many topics have become politically unmentionable in one party or the other. Republicans cannot admit to any nuance in policy on climate change. Republican members are now expected to take pledges against any tax increases. For two consecutive Presidential nomination cycles, GOP candidates competed with one another to express the most strident anti-immigration view, even at the risk of alienating a huge voting bloc. Similarly, most Democrats are constrained when talking about such issues as entitlement cuts, tort reform, and trade agreements. Our political system is losing its ability to even explore alternatives. If fealty to these pledges continues to expand, legislators may pledge their way into irrelevance. Voters will be electing a slate of inflexible positions rather than a leader.

I hope that as a nation we aspire to more than that. I hope we will demand judgment from our leaders. I continue to believe that Hoosiers value constructive leadership. I would not have run for office if I did not believe that.

As someone who has seen much in the politics of our country and our state, I am able to take the long view. I have not lost my enthusiasm for the role played by the United States Senate. Nor has my belief in conservative principles been diminished. I expect great things from my party and my country. I hope all who participated in this election share in this optimism.

I consider myself a Republican, but as more sensible and centrist ones leave, so will I.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

They replaced an R that was going to win the bid to keep his Senate seat with a guy who could (and should) lose to the D. If that does come to pass, the Tea Party will indeed have been a factor in this race. One wonders, should polls a few months hence show Mourdock badly trailing the Demo, if a push to run Lugar as an independent might get going.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Lugar was a class-act, no question. He served long and honorably. But the second most important thing that an incumbent must demonstrate is close connection with his voting constituency. Lugar failed to do that and so he lost. Too bad, but he did himself in by his own actions or failures to act in a fashion in accord with his base.

This whole 'no compromise' line of thought was given a big boost by Republican poster boy Tom DeLay when he made a big speech just before he walked off the job and left with District with no one to Rep it.

DeLay claimed that only real leaders never compromise and that he was a real leader because he never compromised and that everyone was really going to miss him now that he was dragging up on his job and blah, blah, blah......

The next day Rush Limbaugh went school-girl giddy over DeLay's remarks and proclaimed that not compromising was the new gold standard for Republicans.

So this Murdock fellow is not coming up with anything new; he is only parroting what his handlers are telling him to say.

So what we will really find out is: Is this what the voters really want? Someone who will sit there and draw their pay and do nothing? Compromising involves thinking and not compromising involves doing nothing but sitting there and grinning when told to do so.

Nice work if you can get it.

It's what the majority of the voters in his base wanted. That is the philosophical underpinning of representative democracy. Questioning that is actually an attack on the precept of American democracy.

I suspect his errors in that regard explain how he could lose by 20 points. He claims that the charges against him were overblown, that he still operates a farm in Indiana with his sons.

Perhaps he got overconfident. We'll see how prudent R primary voters were on this one. I suspect the D will win. This Mourdock guy doesn't strike me as having the right stuff.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Currently Murdock is behind in the polls because of a lawsuit he filed to stop the auto company bail-outs. This was 'en vogue among Republicans at the time, but now that it has been clearly labeled a success Republicans that were on the edges of it are claiming they thought of it.

But this will not work for Murdock since he is not only on record as being 100% against it he is even one of the few Republicans that filed a lawsuit to stop it.

Now that about 100,000 people in IN have jobs because of the bail-out this is not a good place to be in, and so far Murdock has not been able to spin his way out of it.

But it will be fun to watch him try.

I live in northwest Ohio on the edge of Indiana. All of my antenna TV is out of Indiana so I see A LOT of Indiana politics. I think the deal about him spending so much time in Florida hurt him a lot. And I don't blame the voters. If you are representing a state your ass better be there most of the time when you are not in in DC. He lost connection and the voters looked for change.

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Current:
1985 300D aka Miss Margaret
1991 300SE aka Alarice
1995 SL320 aka Samantha
1997 K1500 Silverado
Past:
1999 E300 ex-wife got it and let her son ruin it
1984 190 2.3 ex-wife got it and let her son destroy a great car
1985 300D (CA version) aka Maybelline lost to deer at high speed.
1981 300D aka Madeline (went to salvage at near 400k) rusty, yet best car I ever drove
Wishlist:
McFarlan TV6 (only a few privately owned)
ReVere with Rochester engine
1917 Premier (only one left)

Seems like a lot of wishful thinking to me.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Compromise is the sure-fire way to lose a primary in this day and age. The candidates need to energize the fringes to win, which generally alienates (to varying degrees) those more central party members. Then, once they win the primary, they attempt to mend the fences with the party moderates in time for the general election.

We see it all the time here in CT, except they all turn hard-left before steering back to the center come election time. Even the Republicans.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

The whole 'living in your district' thing......

When Lyndon was in the House of Reps he was either broke or cheap because he had only a few household items. But he would drag them with him when he went to DC and then again when he went back to Texas.

He kept a place in both, and when he was in DC he was working. When he was in Texas he was out and about talking to folks, hanging out at Cafe's, helping someone mend a fence. He was out where people could see him and talk to him and it got him elected time after time.

He was in the House of Reps from 1937 to 1949 which might be why he supported the Interstate Highway system!

And he would drive both ways because of all the stuff he had to haul back and forth. Of course this gave him the chance to stop in Texas a lot for gas and eats and this paid off when he ran for the Senate since he had made it his business to get to know people up and down US 75.

Lyndon knew that pressing the flesh in your district was important if you wished to stay in office. That and doing stuff for your district. The being there was not some secret that he discovered. He just looked upon it as a part of his job and he was in his district every chance he got.

Maybe Lugar just got tired.

He lost because the t-party, and those who follow them, thought he was too moderate, and moderation is intolerable to them,

Sooooo..........they replace a probable shoo-in with a t-party loss in November.

There's something absolutely Darwinian about that scenerio.

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62 220sb
67 250S
72 280SE 4.5
74 280C
77 300D
82 240D
85 190E 2.3
86 300E RIP 12/28/09
85 300SD
92 300D 2.5
00 E320 Current
Over 1,000,000 miles in Benzes, Since66

....and a whole passel of BMW 2002 and Tii

It's probably a good thing, long-term, for the nation. If they lose and a Demo gets in then the next election cycle will result in a highly motivated 'kick-the-bum-out' sentiment. Unless the fiscal conservatives pressure the Demo to moderation for 6 years.