Until late 2008, most Hoosiers were quite pleased — and in many cases, darn right proud — to call Richard Lugar their senior U.S. senator.
He has served Indiana with dignity, helping to guide through Congress some of the most significant legislation in the nation’s history. Democrats and fellow Republicans sought his advice and listened to his ideas. That hard-earned respect allowed Lugar to craft landmark laws through bipartisan support. The Nunn-Lugar bill, which led to the deactivation of nuclear warheads and fuel scattered among the splintered former Soviet republics, exemplifies his skill. He coordinated with Sam Nunn, a former senator from Georgia.
Lugar was a conservative Republican. Nunn was a conservative Democrat.
In 2012, such a pairing in Congress is, well, impossible. A Republican cannot be a conservative if he or she collaborates with a Democrat, especially the Democrat now occupying the Oval Office.
At least not in the eyes of a faction of the electorate. The tea-party wing of the Republican Party has drawn an unyielding line of acceptability, and Lugar stands on the opposite side. He remains there, despite having moved even closer to their line by, sadly, voting against almost all initiatives from the Democrats and President Obama in the past year, apparently to appease his new critics.
Ironically, the conservative Lugar has become more conservative, and yet that’s still not conservative enough for those demanding more conservatism. That’s because Lugar cannot erase his history of open-mindedness, crossing the Senate aisle on votes for the president’s Supreme Court nominees, the Dream Act, and the government rescue of GM and Chrysler. The judicial qualifications of those justices, a fair step in immigration reform, and the prevention of even greater job losses by Indiana workers at auto parts manufacturing plants gave Lugar valid reasons to cast those votes.
His Senate voting record admirably shows he is not robotic, not chained to an ideology, and not beholden to a party or a branch of a party. Lugar’s judicious independence makes him the clear choice over challenger Richard Mourdock in the May 8 Indiana primary race for the Senate seat Lugar has occupied since 1977. Mourdock, the current state treasurer, has won over tea-party members by insisting he will not waver from the staunchest conservative positions. Thus, outside special-interest groups that champion the hard-line have poured resources into helping Mourdock oust Lugar.
The 80-year-old incumbent has not been challenged so intensely in 36 years of Senate duty, and Lugar has been affected. He had already cast a majority of his votes in opposition to the Democrats and, thus, President Obama. That opposition was measured, with a mutual respect between the senator and the president, who considers Lugar a mentor. Since 2010, Lugar has voted with the Republicans 90 percent of the time, and his opposition to Obama is vocal.
The best-case scenario for Indiana is to have Lugar prevail in the May 8 primary, and resume his once-revered role as a consensus-building Republican. Independent Hoosier voters would be wise to cast ballots in the GOP primary in support of the man with a record of independence.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Hoosier Republicans should stick with Richard Lugar
Longtime U.S. senator deserves seventh term
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
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MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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The celebration season
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