Is Richard Lugar a Hoosier? [2012]

By Associated Press, Published: February 15 SOURCE

INDIANAPOLIS — U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, once seemingly unbeatable in Indiana, has been scrambling to reintroduce himself to Hoosiers amid a barrage of attacks that he has lost touch — an argument his tea party challenger repeated Wednesday in front of the Indianapolis home the incumbent sold decades ago.

The Republican who has spent 35 years in Washington has been campaigning as though he was a rookie politico, trying to introduce himself to the masses and define his image before opponents do.

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Indiana Politicians and the Keystone XL Pipeline [2012]

1. Mitch Daniels
2. Richard Lugar

Mitch Daniels Joins John Boehner’s Web Of Keystone XL Corruption
SOURCE

Gov. Daniels and Sen. Lugar AP Photo

According to recent disclosures, Daniels is part of a concerted Republican effort to lobby Congress to push the tar sands pipeline through prime agricultural land and over the Ogallala Aquifer that supplies groundwater for 20% of America’s agriculture and drinking water for 2 million Americans. It is despicable that Daniels lied to Americans about the pipeline, but it is beyond the pale that his lobbying effort is being funded with Indiana resident’s tax dollars.

Think Progress reports that Indiana’s Washington D.C. representatives were paid with taxpayer dollars to lobby Congress during the fourth quarter of 2011 including “advocacy of the tar sands pipeline.” The Indiana Petroleum Council has pushed the Keystone XL pipeline even though it is unlikely that any Indiana residents will work on its construction. It is one thing to push the pipeline if it created jobs for Indiana residents and one would expect the state to actively lobby for any project to help the unemployed, but not only are there no jobs for Indiana residents, the pipeline does not evenpass through Indiana. And yet Indiana taxpayer’s are funding the oil industry’s lobbying effort at a time when Governor Daniels and Republican state legislators have slashed spending for programs like Medicaid and most recently, full day kindergarten and the state fair. Apparently, for Daniels and Republicans in Indiana, it is better to spend tax dollars to enrich the oil industry than fund children’s health, higher education, and K-12 education that suffered Republican’s deep spending cuts.

It is still unclear what, besides oil industry campaign contributions, Daniels stands to gain pushing the Keystone pipeline, especially in light of mounting evidence it is an ill-advised project. Up to this point, only Republicans in the employ of the oil industry and those with stock in Canadian tar sand companies are pushing the project, but even the GOP’s media outlet, Fox News, labeled the Keystone XL pipeline a “bad deal all along.” Fox News said President Obama was right to nix the pipeline and that “rejecting the Keystone XL deal was the best decision possible” despite Republicans “trying to force his hand” with an artificial deadline. Fox reiterated six reasons the pipeline was a bad deal and they enumerate the primary reasons critics of the project have stated from the before the GOP’s extortion attempt during the payroll tax cut extension fight in December.

It is obvious there is no length Republicans will avoid to enrich the oil industry and Mitch Daniels is the latest target of an investigation to determine what financial gain he will reap if the pipeline is built. However, the people of Indiana should exert severe pressure on Daniels to come clean and admit he was lying about the pipeline, resign, and repay residents for using their tax dollars to promote a project with no benefit to Indiana residents. The pipeline’s proponents are exclusively Republicans and oil industry giants such as Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute, and now, the Indiana Petroleum Council, and Indiana residents are footing part of the bill to lobby Congress on behalf of the oil industry.

Lugar Calls for Keystone XL Passage NOW
SOURCE

“It is time for Democratic Leader Harry Reid to take the reins off those Senate Democrats willing to stand up for America’s workers. Keystone XL is a win for jobs, a win for our economy, and a win for our national security. Further delay is irresponsible. If the President and Majority Leader aren’t willing to let private investors jumpstart the economy, then it’s time they get out of the way,” U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar said.

The House of Representatives has passed, as part of its payroll tax cut extension bill, Lugar’s Keystone XL legislation. Led by Lugar, a bipartisan group of 41 Senators have cosponsored the Lugar- Hoeven-Vitter North American Energy Security Act, legislation that would compel the Obama Administration to act on a construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline in 60 days. Read the full statement.

• Read the Press Conference Statement.
• Read the summary.
• Check out key talking points on the legislation.
• Read the legislation in full.

Emerson Electric Has A $9.4 Billion Contract For Oil Sands Development Support Services.

From the Washington Post:

Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner's financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada's oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies - BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon - along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada. [Washington Post,1/14/12]

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Richard Lugar [2012]

Sen. Richard Lugar [R-IN]

U.S. Senator, Indiana
Track Record
Challenging Richard Mourdock [R] in the primary and Rep. Joe Donnelly [D] for Senate

photo: Getty

Although Lugar's party is in the minority in the Senate, he has good relationships with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Lugar was named an honorary co-chairman of their inauguration.On the day of the final 2008 presidential debate, Lugar gave a speech at the National Defense University praising Obama's foreign policy approach, and warning against the isolationist, reactive policies espoused by Senator McCain. At that debate, Obama also listed Lugar as among the individuals "who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House". There were rumors that either Obama or McCain would select Lugar to be Secretary of State, but that he preferred to keep his Senate seat. 

On March 18, 2009, Lugar cast his 12,000th Senate vote, putting him in 13th place for all-time most votes. In 32 years in the Senate, he has a better than 98% attendance record. Senator Lugar has announced that he will run for reelection in 2012, and has an official campaign site.

During the August recess of 2005, Lugar and freshman Senator Barack Obama visited Russia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine to inspect nuclear facilities there. He was detained for three hours at an airport in the city of Perm, near the Ural Mountains, where they were scheduled to depart for a meeting with the President and the Speaker of the House of Ukraine. He was released after a brief dialogue between U.S. and Russian officials, and the Russians later apologized for this incident. In January 2007, President Bush signed into law the Lugar-Obama Proliferation and Threat Reduction Initiative which was furthering Lugar's work with Senator Nunn in deactivating weapons in the former Soviet Union. The Lugar-Obama program focuses on terrorists and their use of multiple types of weapons. SOURCE

    

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On the Issues

VoteMatch Responses 

(CLICK HERE for full answers)

• Abortion is a woman's right - Opposes
• Require hiring more women & minorities -  Opposes
• Same-sex domestic partnership benefits -  Strongly Opposes
• Teacher-led prayer in public schools -  Strongly Favors
• Death Penalty -   Favors
• Mandatory Three Strikes sentencing laws - Strongly Favors
• Absolute right to gun ownership - Favors
• More federal funding for health coverage - Opposes
• Privatize Social Security - Strongly Favors
• Parents choose schools via vouchers -  Strongly Favors
• Replace coal & oil with alternatives -  Opposes
• Drug use is immoral: enforce laws against it - No Opinion
• Allow churches to provide welfare services -  Favors
• Make taxes more progressive -  Strongly Opposes
• Illegal immigrants earn citizenship -  Favors
• Support & expand free trade -  Strongly Favors
• Expand the armed forces - Strongly Favors
• Stricter limits on political campaign funds -  Opposes
• The Patriot Act harms civil liberties -  Strongly Opposes
• US out of Iraq & Afghanistan - Opposes

The Keystone XL Pipeline Controversy 

Lugar, who sponsored legislation forcing Obama to issue a decision by Feb. 21, made the following remarks while visiting Endress+Hauser Instruments in Greenwood, a prospective supplier of instruments and gauges for the pipeline, which would stretch 1,700 miles from Canada to Port Arthur, Texas:

“A majority of Americans support the pipeline. The studying time is done. The environmental concerns have been addressed. The job creation, economic and energy security arguments are overwhelmingly in favor of building it. The president opposing pipeline construction is not in the best interest of the United States. Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette

Why did the study need to be redone?

Answer: The other study was done by a group that had a conflict of interests.

Would our oil or gas be cheaper? 
Answer: No, the price would actually go up.

How would this benefit Indiana? 

Answer: It wouldn't. Our prices would go up, Canada would benefit and some workers in other states would be employed. 

Why is Dick Lugar spending so much time and energy on the Keystone XL Pipeline when it has no benefit for those that he represents in Indiana? 

Answer: I don't know. Last summer he was doing tours of Indiana wind farms. He claimed that the wind farms could help bring energy independence to our country and put a lot of Hoosiers back to work. Indiana would benefit from wind farms but we will not benefit at all from the Keystone XL pipeline.

Lugar's Ad
The following is from IndyStar.com 1-17-2012

Lugar's ad begins airing today. It highlights his opposition to Obama on the 2009 economic stimulus bill, on the 2010 health-care overhaul and particularly on the current debate over whether to allow construction of an oil pipeline from Canada through the United States. The ad says Lugar wrote the law to stop Obama from killing the jobs that would be created if the Keystone Pipeline is built.

Update [SOURCE]

I don't know at this time what Richard Lugar has to do with this but I will continue to research it.

Think Progress reports that Indiana’s Washington D.C. representatives were paid with taxpayer dollars to lobby Congress during the fourth quarter of 2011 including “advocacy of the tar sands pipeline.” The Indiana Petroleum Council has pushed the Keystone XL pipeline even though it is unlikely that any Indiana residents will work on its construction. It is one thing to push the pipeline if it created jobs for Indiana residents and one would expect the state to actively lobby for any project to help the unemployed, but not only are there no jobs for Indiana residents, the pipeline does not even pass through Indiana. And yet Indiana taxpayer’s are funding the oil industry’s lobbying effort at a time when Governor Daniels and Republican state legislators have slashed spending for programs like Medicaid and most recently, full day kindergarten and the state fair. Apparently, for Daniels and Republicans in Indiana, it is better to spend tax dollars to enrich the oil industry than fund children’s health, higher education, and K-12 education that suffered Republican’s deep spending cuts.

The unlikely target of conservatives

Lugar’s courtliness and Midwestern aversion to rhetorical flamboyance do not match this moment of fevered politics. So this race will take the temperature of a fundamentally temperate state that Obama carried in 2008 by a wafer-thin margin (28,391 votes). In what may be Lugar’s principal vulnerability, some Hoosiers think that with his many foreign policy interests — he has been, and could again be, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — he has neglected Indiana: The day Mourdock announced his challenge, a large majority of the 92 Republican county chairmen endorsed him. READ THE ARTICLE

SOURCE Line up: (left to right) Senate Foreign Relations

Committe Chairman John Kerry, President Hu,

Harry Reid, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

ranking Republican Richard Lugar and John McCain

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