Senator Lugar Endorses Liz Brown & Ignores Matt Kelty

I previously wrote that I was little surprised that Senator Lugar had not done a fundraiser or offered Matt Kelty any kind of public endorsement. This is strange because Kelty highlights the work he's done for Lugar and even has a picture with him on his website. But now one must really wonder what's going on between Lugar and Kelty because Lugar has publicly endorsed Liz Brown in a recent mailer (shown below).

What does it say about Matt Kelty that Senator Lugar won't do a mailer for him but will for Liz Brown? I think it says Lugar agrees that Kelty should not be our next mayor...

Why Isn't Senator Lugar Supporting Kelty?

Matt Kelty touts his previous work for Senator Lugar as part of his political experience and he even has a photo of him and Lugar together on his campaign website:

In 1994 he worked for Senator Dick Lugar's successful re-election campaign, and later worked in Dick Lugar's grass roots organizing campaign in Iowa during Lugar's presidential bid in 1995.

Considering Lugar is an extremely popular Senator and his appeal crosses party lines, why hasn't the Kelty campaign brought Lugar in to do a fundraiser? I can only imagine how much money that would generate. And let us not forget that Lugar has done fundraisers for previous Republican mayoral candidates so this wouldn't be out of the ordinary. So, given his previous fundraisers and his ties to Kelty, why has there been nothing of support from Senator Lugar?

When I think over my own work history I imagine that I could ask any of my previous bosses for a letter of recommendation and they would all oblige. Is a fundraiser not the political equivalent of a letter of recommendation? It's not as if Lugar has anything to worry about politically - he's not up for re-election until 2012 and last time he was the only Congressman/Senator that didn't have a Democratic challenger. I think it says something about Kelty's candidacy that Lugar is nowhere to be found...

Lugar is Starting to Come Around on Iraq

I'm extremely late to this story but I think it needs some discussion nonetheless. From Sylvia Smith's JG piece:

"Unless we recalibrate our strategy in Iraq to fit our domestic political conditions and the broader needs of U.S. national security,” he said, “we risk foreign policy failures that could greatly diminish our influence in the region and the world.”

Failure in Iraq is not inevitable, Lugar said, but success requires Bush to downsize the U.S. military role and “place much more emphasis on diplomatic and economic options.”
“In my judgment, the costs and risks of continuing down the current path outweigh the potential benefits that might be achieved,” he said. “Persisting indefinitely with the surge strategy will delay policy adjustments that have a better chance of protecting our vital interests over the long term.”

It's about time Senator, welcome to reality - it's nice here, you'll like it. Instead of dishing up more snarky commentarty I'll point the reader to Blue Indiana where Thomas explains the situation:

To me, the speech itself is not nearly as important as its symbolic value. Senator Lugar is more or less giving the Bush administration a shot over the bow, and the message is clear: "Stay the course" is no longer acceptable to Congress, and it is time to move on.

Now, there are certainly Republicans that have been more proactive than Sen. Lugar in terms of helping to bring this conflict to an end, and there are undoubtedly some who are so wedded to this war that they will never abandon the sinking ship, but there is no denying the significance of a widely-respected voice on foreign policy choosing to make a very public gesture of discontent. Lugar didn't need to do this politically, and so I can only assume this was a move on his part -- and on behalf of others – with the intent of jumpstarting a dialogue between the White House and Congress on alternatives to the current "strategy" being used in Iraq.

Of course Congressman Souder has made similar remarks but continues to support the Bush administration lock, stock and barrel. But Souder's fence-sitting it's purely political while Lugar's certainly isn't considering he was the only Senator that went unchallenged by a Democratic opponent in 2006. So for now, I'll give Senator Lugar his due and hope that his emergence as a voice of reason within the Republican party can start to change our disastrous policies in Iraq...