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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Ind. Gov't. - Richard Lugar: "Charting His Own Course Against Prevailing Winds"

Jennifer Steinhauer's article on Indiana Senator Richard G. Lugar, will appear in the Sunday NY Times. A quote:

Even after the midterm rout that will remove many long-serving members from Congress, the idea that Mr. Lugar would be vulnerable to a primary challenge is a chilling notion to many Republicans, a symbol of symbolism gone too far.

“If Dick Lugar,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, “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.”

[More] James R. Carroll of the Louisville Courier Journal has this long story, dated Nov. 27, 2010, headlined "Indiana Sen. Lugar working with Obama for Senate OK on arms treaty." The long story begins:
WASHINGTON — In December 1999, Sen. Richard Lugar visited a previously undisclosed Russian missile silo that plunged nearly 20 stories deep in the Siberian wilderness.

“At about the fifth floor, there were two enlisted men from Russia, who I gather were responsible for the weapons that night,” the Indiana Republican recalled in a recent interview. “And, on the wall around where they were, were pictures of American cities.”

Ostensibly, Lugar said, these were the targets for the missile warheads.

It was a “very chilling moment” to realize that the Russians had in mind demolishing entire cities such as Louisville or Indianapolis, Lugar said.

More than a decade later, Lugar — eager to ensure that such missiles never leave their underground homes — has joined with the Obama administration in trying to win ratification of a new arms control treaty with Russia that would reduce the number of weapons each country has in its arsenal.

Ratification requires the support of 67 senators — two-thirds of the body — and Democrats, with a 59-member caucus, need at least eight GOP votes to pass it. The House plays no role in ratifying treaties.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 27, 2010 05:39 PM
Posted to Indiana Government