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| State Senator Richard Mourdock |
While I have written several blog posts discussing Lugar's residency and his fraudulently using someone else's address as his own, I have not delved into the other issues in the U.S. Senate race. At the outset, let me highlight one of them - immigration - an issue on which my position is a lot closer to Lugar's than Mourdock. I believe an enforcement only approach is unrealistic. As an attorney, who has dealt with some immigration clients, I have seen how horribly broken the current naturalization process is. We need comprehensive immigration reform. We certainly don't need to punish law-abiding children of illegal immigrants who had nothing to do with their parents decision to enter our country illegally.
But on the other issues, Mourdock is the hands down winner in my book. Let me hit some of them.
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| Senator Richard Lugar |
- LUGAR IS NOT A RESIDENT OF INDIANA. Lugar has a million dollar home in Virginia. When Lugar comes to Indianapolis, he stays in hotels. He has no residence in Indiana and for the last 35 years has been using someone else's address for registration and voting, signing documents under oath that he lives at that address. What Charlie White is accused of doing is jaywalking compared to what Lugar admits to have been doing. If Lugar wants to run for Senator for Virgina, I'm fine with that. But he should not be using someone else's house, claiming it is his Indiana "residence."
- LUGAR SUPPORTED CORPORATE BAILOUTS. Lugar was 100% supportive of the corporate bailouts, preferring Wall Street over Main Street. Lugar supported the GM and Chrysler bailouts. Lugar supported Obama's $700 million TARP bailout of the financial industry which did nothing to avoid the recession. Meanwhile the financial industry executives rewarded themselves with bonuses paid for with our tax dollars.
- LUGAR SUPPORTS EARMARKS. Much of the problem with unnecessary spending would cease with ending the practice of "earmarks," burying pork barrel spending in the budget bill. Lugar is fine with the current system. Mourdock is not.
- LUGAR DOES NOT SUPPORT SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Lugar has supported gun control while in Congress, earning a D+ rating from the NRA and an F from the Gun Owners of America. Mourdock meanwhile earned an A from the NRA.
- LUGAR VOTES FOR LIBERAL JUDICIAL NOMINEES. Lugar takes the position that the U.S. Senate should not consider a nominee's judicial philosophy in deciding whether to confirm the nominee. As a result, Lugar has voted for every liberal, activist Supreme Court justice, including Obama's appointment of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. He also voted for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Clinton appointee. I do not believe in unilateral disarmament when it comes to considering appointees to the federal judiciary. Democratic Senators are considering judicial philosophy and issues when deciding the fate of federal judicial appointees. Mourdock understands that Republican Senators should do the same.
- LUGAR HAS POOR CONSTITUENT SERVICES. A few years ago, I had the need to contact federal and state officials about a problem my uncle was having with the overzealous Corp of Engineers who had cited him for using a bulldozer to push some dirt to shore up a creek bed wall that was collapsing on his farm. The state officials were great. Very helpful. Then Sen. Bayh and then Congressman Baron Hill acknowledged the problem and tried to help. The Lugar staffer was terrible. He wouldn't even wait for me to outline the problem. He immediately assumed my uncle had done something he shouldn't have done and concluded my uncle should spend tens of thousands of dollars complying with the Corp's ridiculous requests, including that my uncle plant certain weeds in the creek bed, kill other weeds that were not desirable, and hire a plane to fly over the creek bed and photograph the area. I later called back Lugar's national office to complain about the staffer and was assured someone from Lugar's office would call me back to discuss it. At least two years have passed and I'm still waiting for that phone call. I don't know if Mourdock's constituent services will be better than Lugar's but most assuredly, they can't be any worse than Lugar's.