I’m late in noting that one of the Dick Lugar campaign’s strangest attacks against primary opponent Richard Mourdock has concerned his star-spangled neckwear. Politico’s David Catanese reports:
In an email to supporters pushing back against an anti-Lugar television advertisement by the National Rifle Association, Lugar political director David Willkie points out that the elk shown in the spot weren’t found in the Hoosier State and goes on to take issue with Mourdock’s neckwear.
“That’s not an Indiana elk . . . (if so, it would be one of the first wild ones since the Civil War when guys sported Confederate neckties like Richard Mourdock’s),” wrote Willkie.
Asked if the line was meant as a throw-away barb or a serious charge, Willkie doubled down on his assertion.
“Whether or not this exact tie is from the Ben Silver Store in Charleston, SC or someplace else, a historian would see that this tie is a take off on the Confederate Battle flag,” Willkie said. “Some say that it is not exactly the thing to wear in Indiana, Lincoln’s boyhood home and where the popular Indiana National Guard sees its origins directly in the Union Army.”
During an interview here, Mourdock, the state treasurer running in the May primary, denied the tie in question (pictured above) includes any Confederate messaging or advocacy and dismissed the allegation as increasing signs of desperation from the Lugar camp.
“I do not own a Confederate necktie. I own two ties that are red with a blue stripe with white stars. I bought them at the Republican state convention,” he said. “I don’t even know how to respond. I am stunned. If you’re running for class president you do something like that. I don’t have anything that has a Confederate symbol on it, anything like that. That’s lunacy.”
Read more here.