CARMEL — Gov. Mitch Daniels offered up an emphatic endorsement of his mentor — U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar — before about 300 Republicans on Wednesday night, calling him the “most significant public official in the last century in our state, quite possibly the greatest senator ever to serve from our state.”

The remarks came as Lugar is fending off a Tea Party fueled challenge by Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who has earned kind words from Daniels in the past, even giving him a rare mention in his recent book, “Keeping the Republic.”

In my opinion, Mourdock hasn’t even remotely come close to making a case that Lugar should be replaced. His fundraising has been anemic. His performance in office — which includes a significant decline in meeting attendance — raises questions about his priorities. This past week, Lugar reported $750,000 raised and $4 million cash on hand for his 4th quarter FEC report. It contrasted with Mourdock, who has yet to release his money totals, and countered a statewide Lugar TV buy in the Indianapolis, South Bend, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne and Louisville media markets with a tiny $2,500 cable buy during Monday night’s Republican presidential debate.

So it was fascinating to watch Indiana’s articulator-in-chief — Gov. Daniels — who will give the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, speak of Lugar, who he called his “mentor, exemplar, coach.” The Lugar campaign had a video production crew recording every word; fodder for coming TV ads featuring a governor who had a 65 percent approval rating in a December Public Opinion Strategies poll.

The two men have a long history. Daniels was a young hire under then-Indianapolis Mayor Lugar, managed his 1976 and 1982 Senate campaigns, and became the senator’s first chief of staff.

Daniels left no doubt who he will support in the May 8 primary. “Public service practiced by Dick Lugar is truly a noble quality,” Daniels said at the Monon Center rally. “I’ve said before, here we have the entire package: Intelligence, a commitment to the public interest of all, not a party, not a segment of society, not a base, the interests of all. His comments tonight I thought underscored so clearly why Dick Lugar is a man of the future. Seeing things that others aren’t able to see, having insights about what is facing this country, and the constructive ways forward that are just invisible to those of us with lesser talents.”

Prior to Daniels remarks, Lugar reminded his supporters that he had pressed President Obama on the Keystone Pipeline, which the president rejected earlier in the day. Lugar said the pipeline would have created 20,000 jobs — including new jobs at 12 Indiana companies — while providing “an independence in our oil supply.”

“People say, again and again, it’s jobs,” Lugar continued. “Don’t you guys get it? Well, we do get it.”

Lugar and House Republicans included the pipeline in the payroll tax compromise, forcing Obama to make a decision within 60 days.

Daniels called the timing of his endorsement a “coincidence,” and observed of Lugar, “He’s right now, this evening, on the spear point of the biggest jobs issue. It’s not coincidental that on this date, he has forced the president’s hand. The president has made a colossal mistake. It’s a terrible disservice to tens of thousands of Americans who could have been employed. I believe he’s made a colossal mistake and a miscalculation in the politics of this year.”

“While we’re on the subject of coincidences,” Daniels continued, “it is certainly true that the preoccupation of our fellow citizens … is the restoration of economic opportunity, upward mobility, fortification of the middle class, which is always characterized in America and democracy. The senator reminded us, this is a dangerous world. It won’t leave us alone to solve our economic problems in isolation.”

The governor noted that he had just come from the second of four Indiana National Guard funerals due to a road side bomb in Afghanistan on Jan. 6.

“There are not a handful of Americans alive who understand the sources of the danger, the things that might be done to protect Americans better than our senator,” Daniels said. “He is a national asset. It’s not just that Indiana cannot afford to relinquish. America can’t afford it either. How often we hear it said these days, ‘where are the statesmen? Where are those people in a polarized often toxic, highly personal, bitterly partisan world, where are those people who might bring folks together to achieve the kind of big changes this nation needs?’ There aren’t more than a handful of those, either. This is one person who is respected and trusted. He’s an asset that America needs and Indiana should be so proud that [he’s an asset] Indiana continues to provide.”

Daniels concluded by saying, “Yes, I am enthusiastic. You know how much we owe to the past efforts of this man, you know that is not the reason we’re here. It’s how much we have riding on his continued service and how much more of a brighter future we will have when he is secured in another term in the U.S. Senate.”

— This columnist publishes at www.howeypolitics.com. Contact Howey at bhowey2@gmail.com.