In case you missed it yesterday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hit Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., for saying that the economy remains strong, even while Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Fox Chicago that “the fundamentals of the American economy are sound.”
Sunlen Miller at ABC News covered the DSCC attack:
“After 35 years in Washington, Senator Lugar is clearly out of touch with the struggles that so many Hoosier are facing right now,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Press Secretary Shripal Shah said, “His remarks are nothing short of insulting to the Hoosier families who are very worried about what’s happening on Wall Street and don’t feel that the economy is strong.”
Miller notes that Lugar’s comment could “come back to haunt him” in his reelection campaign.
Meanwhile, Durbin, second only to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in party leadership, echoed Lugar’s remarks in an interview of his own:
The dissonance between Durbin – who is repeating the standard Democratic line by blaming the downgrade on partisan legislators – and the DSCC comes from the fact that the DSCC is trying to weaken Lugar in his reelection bid. He faces a tough primary challenge from State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, R-Ind., so the DSCC is picking up conservative talking points about the economy because they’d rather not run against an incumbent Republican in 2012.
But any Indiana Republican primary voter who is taking cues from the DSCC on how to vote probably wouldn’t vote for Lugar’s Tea Party-backed challenger, Mourdock.
