Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) crushed Sen. Dick Lugar (R) in yesterday’s GOP Senate primary in Indiana, ending the 36-year career of one of the few Republican senators left in Washington who was interested in working with Democrats to get things done.
Tea Party-backed Mourdock is not just ideological, he is adamantly opposed to bipartisanship. In fact, he’s called for more partisanship in Washington, saying he’s more interested in destroying Democrats than solving the nation’s problems by working with them.
Appearing on MSNBC this morning with host Chuck Todd, Mourdock offered his own definition of bipartisanship:
MOURDOCK: I certainly think bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view. … If we [win the House, Senate, and White House], bipartisanship means they have to come our way, and if we’re successful in getting the numbers, we’ll work towards that.
Watch it:
As TP Justice Editor Ian Millhiser notes, Mourdock’s win means Democrats have no choice but toreform the filibuster: “The parties are too far apart. The Republicans are too eager to obstruct, and the handful of GOPers with a history of bipartisanship [like Lugar] will be too spooked to reach across the aisle. America could go years with one or more Supreme Court seats vacant.â€
A couple of years ago when conservative activists were making noise about primarying Lugar, former Republican senator and UN ambassador John Danforth told the New York Times, “If Dick Lugar, having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.â€
Apparently, that time has come.
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