'I hope to do is to help build a conservative majority' in the Senate, Mourdock said. Mourdock dismisses Lugar attack

Fresh from his Republican primary win, Richard Mourdock on Wednesday brushed aside Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar’s parting shot hat he has an “unrelenting partisan mindset.”

On appearances on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” and CNN’s “Starting Point,” the tea party favorite pushed back against the scathing statement Lugar issued after his loss Tuesday night and described himself a politician who believes bipartisanship means bringing Democrats to the Republican way of thinking.


“I have a mindset that says bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view,” Mourdock said on Fox. “You know, I’ve said many times through this campaign that one of the things I hope to do is to help build a conservative majority in the United States Senate and continue to help the House build a Republican majority and have a Republican White House and then bipartisanship becomes having Democrats come our way. So that’s what we’re working towards and I think in the days ahead, Mr. Lugar will join our effort.”

After Mourdock defeated the six-term senator in the Indiana Republican primary on Tuesday night, Lugar issued a statement blasting his challenger.

“His embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate. In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party,” Lugar wrote.

On CNN, host Soledad O’Brien told Mourdock after he described his position on bipartisanship that “what I hear you say is you’re not going to compromise, in fact the only compromise you’ll do is really getting other people on the other side of the aisle to come to your side of the aisle, which is the definition against compromise.”

“Well, it is the definition of political effectiveness,” Mourdock replied.

“The fact is, you never compromise on principles. If people on the left they have a principle they want to stand by, they should never compromise, those of us on the right should not either,” he said. “Compromise may come in the finer details of the plan or the budget, but the real principles that I’ve mentioned about having government rolled back in size, lowering taxes, those things are the principles that caused me to get in the race.”

And, Mourdock added, “we are at that point where one side or the other has to win this argument. One side or the other will dominate.”

Mourdock also told CNN that he describes his personal leadership style as “confrontational.”

“When I say I want to be confrontational, I want to confront the issues,” he said. “I’m bipartisan in the sense I want to confront the big spenders who are both Republicans and Democrats. I want to confront those who would protect the bureaucracy rather than the Republicans or Democrats. That’s the kind of confrontation we need to address the real issues that will get this country going again. We have a difficult time ahead, we have to make tough decisions, I’m willing to make them.”

“And if people see that as confrontational, so be it. I like to see it as effective leadership,” Mourdock said.