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In tonight's U.S. Senate debate Republican Richard Mourdock put his cards on the table, declaring that if pregnancy from rape occurs it must be something God intended.

Video by the Indiana Democrats.

“I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

After the debate, Mourdock backpeddled somewhat from his on-air statements, saying:

“Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think God ordained or pre-ordained rape? No, I don’t think that anyone could suggest that. That’s a sick, twisted – no, that’s not even close to what I said,” Mourdock said.

“It is a fundamental part of my faith that God gives us life. God determines when life begins,” he said. “I believe in an almighty God who makes those calls. … There are some things in life that are above my pay grade.”

His opponent, also a pro-lifer, Democrat Joe Donnelly criticized Mourdock's extremism.

Donnelly, who opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened, condemned Mourdock’s debate comments.

“Rape is a horrible crisis, an unspeakable crime, and I can’t believe that my God, or any God, would intend it to happen,” he said afterward. "What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape."

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Indiana Republican Sen. Dick Lugar and his 77 percent conservative voting record was not good enough to prevent him from having a "tea party" primary challenger, State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Complete and total obstruction rather than an iota of compromise to make sure the government actually functions seems to be the new standard of what it means to be a "conservative" these days.

The panel on ABC's This Week weighed in on Lugar's primary challenge and pundits Bay Buchanan and George Will think it's just wonderful that Lugar is facing a primary challenge, despite the fact that he's got a lot better chance of defeating his Democratic challenger, Joe Donnelly. They might want to be careful what they wish for.

Nate Silver has more on that: Lugar Loss Could Provide Pickup Opportunity for Democrats:

The latest veteran lawmaker to be the subject of a vigorous primary challenge is the 80-year-old Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who is being challenged for the Republican nomination by State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. [...]

If Mr. Lugar loses, it should increase Democrats’ odds of picking up the Senate seat in November. Democrats have a fairly good candidate in Indiana in the form of United States Representative Joe Donnelly, who represents the Second Congressional District and who narrowly retained his seat in a very tough environment for Democrats nationally in 2010. The Second District, which includes South Bend and Michigan City, is slightly Republican-leaning relative to the country as a whole but slightly Democratic-leaning relative to the rest of Indiana.

I'm not getting my hopes up on this one, but it would be nice to see Republicans lose a seat in the Senate because of their purity tests. This AstroTurf so-called "tea party" of theirs, which is nothing but a rebranding effort by the far right wing of the party which wants to push them continually to the right has done some damage in previous elections already. Maybe we get lucky here and they do it again.

Transcript of the panel discussion below the fold.

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I've always agreed with Howard Dean's fifty state strategy where as head of the DNC he felt we should try to get Democrats elected in every district in every part of the country and not to let any races go unchallenged. I never agreed with Rahmbo's strategy that the way to win in conservative districts is to run Democrats who should have an R behind their name instead of trying to get good progressive candidates elected to those seats. And here's one reason why. All they do is undermine the party and give the talking heads over at ClusterFox a reason to mock progressives like they're doing here. Thanks Rahm.