Richard Lugar

“He couldn’t hide the fact that he was the smartest person in the room. He was the opposite of ‘folksy,’ which was fine in my estimation—I have always felt ‘folksy’ was often phony, and that was a charge that could never be made against Dick Lugar.”

“The pendulum will swing to the center, the rumors of democracy’s death will have been exaggerated, and we can return to obsessing about the Kardashians. This is my dream.”

“Before the program even began, the crowd delivered each a standing ovation, awed by two statesmen who eschewed speaking in soundbites in favor of fully formed U.N. draft resolutions.”

Let’s hope the lecture is more civil than the comments in the event’s promotional Facebook post.

Maybe the time had come to defy Kurt’s injunction against my return in his review of ‘Going All the Way,’ and instead remember his declaration that we could be writers in our hometown as well as anywhere else.

“I’m a natural ham. I like to get up and tell stories. That’s really what it’s all about.”

“There is a Midwestern calmness, a stability of outlook, very well exemplified by Dick [Lugar] and many, many others, that goes over well in Washington,” says longtime Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton.

The victor of this month’s election should listen to this advice from past mayors.

In a chamber where one party enjoys a thin majority, Indiana’s junior senator has garnered disproportionate influence as one of a handful of Democratic legislators from red and purple states who hold swing votes.

In addition to Lugar, Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom—founded by president John F. Kennedy—to Bill Clinton, Sally Ride, Oprah Winfrey, Loretta Lynn, Gloria Steinem, and more.

To understand the chasm currently separating Indiana’s political parties, all you need to do is picture their election-night celebrations. On November 6, the Democrats chose a sedate ballroom at the Downtown Marriott. The Republicans, who were marching toward supermajorities in the House and the Senate, chose the end zone at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Of her half-century marriage, she says, “When I think about it, I wonder, ‘How could 50 years have gone by so fast?’ I used to think people who celebrated their 50th were old, decrepit, and in wheelchairs—not still enjoying life.”

Richard Lugar was the 44th mayor of Indianapolis, and the first to successfully seek reelection (before then, city law prohibited the mayors from serving consecutive terms)