Richard Lugar's defeat lamentable
The defeat of Richard Lugar in the May 8 Republican senatorial primary may turn out as lamentable as it became predictable in the closing days before the primary.
For while the time may indeed have come to recognize that Sen. Lugar’s style in office had in recent years increasingly placed him out of touch with his constituents, the politics of his would-be successor stand aside principles that have served this nation well for nearly 250 years.
To be certain, Richard Mourdoch must both recognize and accept the influential support of tea party factions within Indiana, which helped significantly in propelling his candidacy forward during the primary and will remain a significant political force as we move toward November.
Yet, as we have witnessed Congress attempting to govern in the wake of the tea-party surge of the 2010 mid-term elections, it has emerged as an institution with ever-growing public disregard, its actions far beyond circumspect.
This is due in no small measure to ever-increasing bitter hyper-partisanship, leading to greater confrontation, more heated political rhetoric and little, if any, significant accomplishment in the tackling of our nation’s great economic and foreign policy challenges.
Sen. Lugar had his faults, and his failure to maintain meaningful engagement with citizens of Indiana is a trait no politician shall wish to suffer.
His 35 years of public service, though, were earmarked with an ability to display statesmanship and leadership through an ultimate willingness to work with public servants of all political stripes. He was governed by principles, which placed country over party when the nation’s needs demanded politicians to be public servants, not merely party loyalists.
As part of maintaining that principle, Sen. Lugar found the art of political compromise not only time-honored and well-served but indeed desirable as posed against the sins of intransigent ideology.
Mourdoch, as a full-fledged supporter of tea party principles, is a man intransigent in his beliefs and entrenched in a political philosophy that had led and will continue to lead to ever greater legislative gridlock as Congress sinks to a state of non-governance.
There is an old saying that one should be careful of what one hopes for, as we may indeed regret what we receive. In American politics, especially congressional politics, the American public has far from been served or the nation’s interests truly addressed. Mourdoch is prepared to be part of that, and we as citizens may truly come to find the passing of statesmanship, bipartisanship and the art of compromise, all embodied in the principles and practices in large part by Lugar, truly lamentable.
Kevin Krajewski
Gas prices rip-off
I cannot believe what I saw today as the price of gas went up 26 cents a gallon. How can the CEO and other leaders of the gas company sleep at night? They must not have any feelings as the price of crude oil went down to $94 a barrel.
I can remember when gas was about $4 a gallon and the price of crude was about $138 a barrel. I know the Fort Wayne area is one of the highest in the state. Does this mean we are the most stupid?
How is anything going to get better when people cannot keep food on the table because of the rip-offs we keep getting whenever the CEO feels it is time for extra money in his pocket?
Ralph Klinker
Monroeville
