Friday, March 09, 2012
Matt Tully's Selective Outrage
Star political columnist Matt Tully is apoplectic about the conundrum the 80-year-old Sen. Richard Lugar faces in seeking an unprecedented seventh term in the Senate without a place to call home in the Hoosier state. Those who raise questions about why he hasn't had a home in the Hoosier state in 35 years are just "hyperpartisans who dominate politics these days." Like the rest of Indiana's media, Tully has anointed Lugar a "statesman" who is beyond reproach, and anyone running against him or opposing his re-election is just "mean-spirited", even if Lugar was just caught red-handed using his official Senate office in Indianapolis to conduct his personal business affairs. Tully is particularly outraged that a young woman would dare stand outside a pricey fundraiser Lugar threw for political insiders in Washington, D.C. just days after several towns were obliterated by deadly tornadoes in southern Indiana. According to Tully, this "young woman [was] "harassing Lugar as he enters a fundraiser in D.C." and "ridiculously attempts to paint Lugar as not caring about the recent Southern Indiana tornadoes." Tully calls this young woman "a jerk with an iPhone."
As to the "statesman's" false and misleading attacks against his Republican opponent, Richard Mourdock, Tully is silent. In Tully's eyes, it is fair game for Lugar to attack Mourdock for a mistake the Marion County Auditor's office made in giving him a homestead exemption for his Indianapolis condominium (a mistake discovered and corrected by Mourdock), or to even accuse Mourdock of committing vote fraud by casting votes from his Evansville home instead of his Indianapolis condominium when Lugar casts absentee votes from a home in Indianapolis he hasn't resided in 35 years. Tully's disdain for anyone who would dare oppose Lugar even makes it okay for Lugar to accuse Mourdock of not showing up for work because he sends a person from his office to attend state board meetings on his behalf as Gov. Mitch Daniels and other statewide elected officials frequently do.
The attacks on Lugar are all just "silly attacks" according to Tully. Only an out-of-touch political reporter unfit for the job would condemn people who think Lugar should consider hanging it up after 36 years in the Senate. How silly of us to wonder how Lugar can truly represent the people of this state when he spends more time traveling to other countries and other states when the Senate is not in session than he does in his home state. And when he does stop in for the occasional visit, he stays in a hotel on the taxpayers' dime because he has no home here and says he can't afford one on his $174,000 a year salary. What are we thinking? Do you think we're going to purchase a subscription to read this dribble? What are you thinking, Matt?
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4 comments:
So exactly what ISSUES (other than this hollow residency thing) are you pointing to here? What issues and problems with Hoosiers is Mr. Lugar "out of touch" with? All I have heard is a cacophony of noise regarding residency...but there is no bite beyond the whining. I have yet to see ONE ISSUE being brought to the table by your group or Mr. Murdoch. As we have seen with Obama, change for change's sake is not always a good thing. And Mr. Ogden, is there a certain point with regard to your age we should just disregard your posts as "out of touch"? That's kind of the argument of the fringe element at this point.
I'm not Mr. Ogden and his name is spelled "Mourdock." If you had followed Mourdock's campaign, which I understand is hard to do through the media filter, you would see that his campaign has been largely based on the need to address the catastrophic national debt that has been run up on Lugar's watch and Lugar's refusal to accept any fundamental changes that offer any hope of returning this nation to fiscal sanity.
Lugar has not done a damn thing to curb our national debt...which is only one of the issues against him.
As far as residency "BloggerBill" apparently "BloggerBill" (who I would guess is from the Lugar campaign) doesn't think it is important that Senators actually have a home in the state they represent. The Founding Fathers thought otherwise though which is why they include the requirement that one be an "inhabitant" of the state they represent. Yet Lugar thinks he's above the law and apparently above the constitution.
In fairness, a few of Tully's articles make a reasonable point, but this is not one of them. What is stunning seems to be the contempt for actual facts.
Blogger Bill, the issues are available for anyone to see:
Lugar voted with Harry Reid against a permanent ban on earmarks and left fiscal conservatism the longer he's stayed in D.C.
In '78 he used our tax $ to bail out NY, and one year later, did the same for Chrysler with 1.5 billion.
In '82 voted to increase the gas tax,
In '83 voted to increase social security taxes.
In '84 voted AGAINST A 10% CUT in the Federal budget,
In '95, voted against a work requirement for welfare recipients.
In '98 voted against a $195.5 billion income-tax cut.
And let not forget voting for bridge to nowhere and cap&trade fiasco. And this is just the start.
30+ yrs.ago, Lugar sold his home, packed up the family & vacated Indiana & only comes back for a token visit in hotels and does not 'inhabit' Indiana.
I believe we can do better than this, but more to the point, Tully doesn't like talking about the issues. He prefers the blinders that satisfy a weak column.
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