That the Republican Party is beyond redemption sounds like something I’d say. The party represents only fat cats and criminal corporations. They crave power so desperately, they don’t care where they get their support, so they goose-step in perfect lock step with racists, bigots, homophobes, and even revolutionary seditionists. They happily obstruct anything that mike make the current administration look good, even if an item was originally their own proposal, no matter how desperate the need for passage by Main Street Americans. However, “beyond redemption” did not come from me, but from one of their own.

In an age when far-right tea party activists have taken over the Republican Party and demanded lockstep allegiance, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) has been one of the few GOP lawmakers to step out of line. In particular, Lugar, the ranking GOP member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has blasted his own party for relentlessly blocking ratification of the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, calling on his fellow GOP senators to “ do your duty for your country ” and complete the pact. Not surprisingly, this insubordination has earned Lugar significant scorn within the Republican base, which now seems to value blind obedience over principled independent decision-making. In a New York Times profile of Lugar published today, former GOP Sen. John Danforth feared that the backlash against Lugar from his own party signals that the GOP has gone “ far overboard ” with no hope of turning back: “If Dick Lugar,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, “having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.” Mr. Danforth, who was first elected the same year as Mr. Lugar, added, “I’m glad Lugar’s there and I’m not.” Danforth’s fears are not unfounded. Lugar, who is up for reelection in 2012, has already been targeted by tea party groups … [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I respect Lugar more than any other current Republican Senator, a handful of Democrats, and one Independent, whose name should be obvious to all. I don’t have to agree all the time to get along with someone. But even Lugar has been far too quick to hold to party discipline on some obviously necessary issues like the extension of unemployment benefits.