Richard Lugar goes down. Will other RINOs follow?

The Tea Party is alive and well. Last night they won a singular
victory. Their favorite, Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, beat
long-time Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). Mourdock thus shows what the Tea
Party is now doing: reforming the Republican Party from within.

Mourdock won 61 percent of the Republican primary vote, to Lugar’s 39 percent. At once he gave credit
to the Tea Party for his win. Specifically, the Tea Party fielded
“thousands of…volunteers,” who “helped” with his campaign. That, he
said, made the difference between winning and losing.

Lugar, for his part, proved a sore loser. An hour after he conceded defeat, he said his in writing:

If Mr. Mourdock [wins in November], I want him to be a
good senator. But [to do that, he must] revise his stated goal of
bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions.
But [he] embrace[s]…an unrelenting partisan mindset. [That] is
irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of
what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect,… he has
promised reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid
opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer
to the inevitable roadblocks he will [meet] in Congress is merely to
campaign for more Republicans [of like mind]. He has pledged his support
to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of
those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it.

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). Photo: The United States Senate

Lugar can only mean the Tea Party. And Tea Party activists everywhere do not apologize for that. And Tim Stanley of The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) says
they shouldn’t. Stanley is “spot-on” about what the Tea Party stands
for today: reforming the Republican Party, to offer a “real choice” to
the people.

Folks are sick and tired of party candidates saying one
thing during the primary season, another thing during the general
election, and then ignoring both when they get into office. If you pay
good money and spend precious time working to [help elect] a candidate,
shouldn’t you expect to see them do what they promised…? Yet men like
Lugar seemed to regard their local parties as a mix of rubber stamp and
perennial nuisance. The feeling, it turns out, is mutual.

Or, as a Tea Party activist in Indiana told Politico.com:

The message to the establishment is: You’re our servants.
We’re the masters. Do what you’re supposed to do, adhere to the
Constitution or we’ll fire you.