DICK LUGAR OUT!! Defeated in primary by Tea Partier

[Thorack]

Well,

It was bound to happen that all the Senate good old boys would get the boot.

Dick Lugar, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, was defeated Tuesday as Indiana Republicans chose state Treasurer Richard Mourdock over Lugar as the party's nominee.

With 37 percent reporting, Mourdock received 60 percent to 40 percent for Lugar in the Hoosier state's Senate primary, marking a huge win for tea party supporters and conservatives across the country.

Conservatives had long targeted Lugar for defeat, arguing he represented a Republican establishment in Congress that has acquiesced to the Democratic party. They singled out Lugar's votes for the bailouts, in support of the president's stimulus and votes to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor as evidence of his "RINO" (Republican in name only) status.

National tea party groups such as FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Express as well as the state group Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate and others mobilized and invested in the race, casting the contest as a nationally significant battle to restore conservatism and hold leaders of the Republican establishment accountable.

"Richard Mourdock's historic underdog victory is proof that grassroots activists, armed with good ideas and hard work, can fundamentally change the Republican Party from the inside out," FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said in a statement Tuesday night. "This is just one more example of the hostile takeover of the Republican Party that we've been working on since 2009."

Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum were among the high-profile politicians who offered public support for Mourdock's campaign.

Thorack