Not politically consequential, but a nice story all the same. The Evansville Courier Press has an article about the (Evansville) Thump Squad, a drum squad, that had gone to D.C. to compete in the Fifth Annual Afterschool for All Challenge. They competed in that event but had apparently planned an encore in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. They were told they could not play inside because it would be too noisy.
Contacted about the problem during his meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sen. Lugar found the band a new venue in a park. Lugar then showed up for the performance and took pictures and shook hands. A nice bit of politicking by the Senator.
Senator Lugar also had the courage of his convictions and shocked many people by predicting a long ,hard war in Iraq and if I remember he predicted 5-10 yrs there and this was before or just as we were going in and no body knew how bad it would be.Anything military I think Lugar should be asked FIRST. This is the sort of man conservatives should put forward as their prototype conservative. I would vote for Lugar in a moment,if a resident of Indiana.
On the other hand, Lugar clearly suspected what we were in for in Iraq and he didn’t do a whole lot to stop the Bush administration or make sure they adequately planned for the aftermath. So, he deserves credit for being aware of the situation. He deserves blame for not doing more to make sure we prepared accordingly even though he was in a position to do so.
Yes,its true Lugar could have done more with his expertise in military affairs and his high rank on Senate committee. But at least he’s on the record early ( as a republican and conservative) for debunking the spin.No one did anything.Everyone was intimidated and didnt want to ‘undermine our country’. You know,if this war had turned out as the Bush administration had planned,Bush would be a war hero now and all his agenda would have sailed through Congress.That’s something to ponder.
I defense of Lugar I understand that the Bush White House foreign policy operation was freezing him out of discussions.