Lugar has won bipartisan praise for his work in foreign relations. A 1992 act he co-sponsored is credited for quickly bottling up what could have been a massive problem of loose nuclear weapons that were once the property of the Soviet Union.
In Republican circles, however, a résumé with Lugar’s accomplishments doesn’t carry much water with the Tea Partiers. Apparently, neither does his solidly conservative voting record in the Senate.
Republican primary voters in Indiana — as in other states — place ideological purity and a sharp tongue ahead of experience and achievement. That could be very bad news for Lugar.
