Former President Clinton made a reference to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. – although not by name – during his Wednesday night speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

Clinton was talking about how Democrats and Republicans had worked together in his lifetime to solve problems.

“Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn’t see it that way,” he told convention delegates at Time Warner Cable Arena. “They think government is always the enemy, they’re always right, and compromise is weakness.

“Just in the last couple of elections, they defeated two distinguished Republican senators because they dared to cooperate with Democrats on issues important to the future of the country, even national security,” Clinton said.

One of those senators is Lugar, the six-term incumbent defeated in this year’s Indiana GOP primary election by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. The other was Bob Bennett, a three-term Utah senator rejected by that state’s Republican nominating convention in 2010.

In both cases, the senators were portrayed as too moderate by conservative tea party Republicans.