Richard Mourdock Quotes
I have a mindset that says bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view.
Mourdock, Richard. Interview. Fox News, FOX News Network, 9 May 2012.
At the time Congress was gridlocked in bitter hyperpartisan conflict. Most people called for more comity and bipartisanship and most politicians wanted more bipartisanship but blamed the other party for the rift. Mourdock,arguing for less bipartisanship and no compromise defeated Richard Lugar in the Republican Senatorial Primary election. Lugar, one of the most respected and effective Senators was a statesman who worked with any and all to find effective compromises to reach national solutions. The nation was so politically polarized that the Republican Indiana voters ousted one of their most senior senators because he was effective at developing national solutions. See {626717} and {302706} for other Mourdock outrageous comments. While this rhetoric won in the Primary, it lost him the general election in a state where Republicans had a strong majority and should have had the seat.
The Tea Party Republicans did not agree about compromise of principles, nor did some Democratic liberals who were being asked to cave in on extending emergency unemployment insurance for long-term unemployed.
In 2011 nd 2012 a right wing extremist group—the Tea Party-were able to intimidate the Republican Congressional leadership to take the extreme partisan view that why would allow no significant legislation to pass as it might strengthen Democrat president Obama’s chances of getting reelected. Therefore there was to be no cooperation or even negotiations with the Democrats in Congress. Lugar a highly respected Republican Statesman, and expert on Foreign Affairs, followed his usual pattern of trying to develop legislation that would benefit the country. The Tea Party and some of the more partisan regular republicans then ran a candidate in the state primary election sending huge amounts of money to defeat Lugar who was a sure winner in the general election as he was very popular with all groups in Indiana ecept the right wing extremists, racists and fascists. Lugar never had the chance to win the election. He was defeated in the primary for working with Democrats.
Richard Earl Mourdock is an American politician who served as treasurer of the state of Indiana from 2007 to 2014. Running with the support of the Tea Party movement, he defeated six-term incumbent U.S. Senator Richard Lugar in the May 2012 Republican primary election. He lost the November 6, 2012 general election for Lugar's seat to Democratic congressman Joe Donnelly.