Tea party formulates strategy to unseat Lugar.

[pampango]

About 200 activists meeting today think veteran Republican senator is too liberal.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110122/NEWS05/101220334/Tea-party-formulates-strategy-to-unseat-Lugar?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE

At the same time that Sen. Richard Lugar will be honored today for supporting a program to put the children of illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, tea party activists will be organizing a campaign to beat him in 2012. For them, the immigration issue earning awards for the Indiana Republican is just one more reason why they think he should be forced into retirement.

A couple of hundred activists from about 80 tea party organizations across the state will meet at a church in Tipton County to discuss how they could coalesce around a candidate to defeat Lugar in 2012's Republican primary.

The reason, she and others say, is simple: Lugar has poked them in the eye once too often by voting in ways they view as too liberal. They cite votes to ratify a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia and to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. More recently, they were alarmed by his statement that he would again support an assault-weapons ban -- even though no one, including Lugar, thinks such a ban will come up for a vote.

And then there's his support of the DREAM Act to help children of illegal immigrants. Tea party activists held a sign-waving protest outside Lugar's Indianapolis office in November over that bill, which failed in Congress.

[Kolesar]

1. Pat Buchanan predicted that "immigration" was going to divide the Republican Party

Business interests/robber barons on one side, versus the
racist/nativist bloc
:popcorn:

[Sal Minella]

2. "they think he should be forced into retirement."

More civil than shooting him, I guess.