"Far Overboard"

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) is virtually alone among Republican Senators who support the new START treaty with Russia, which would mandate both countries to reduce their nuclear arsenals and resume mutual inspections. Lugar has urged his Republican colleagues to "do their duty" for the country to reduce the nuclear threat, rather than merely playing politics to deny President Obama any success, let alone a foreign relations victory.

Because of his stand on the START treaty, among other maverick-y positions, Lugar is now drawing the baleful gaze of the Indiana Tea Party, which is promising a primary challenge when Lugar has to run for reelection in 2012.

About this prospect, former Republican Sen. John C. Danforth of Missouri told the NYTimes:

"If Dick Lugar, 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."

Danforth might know something about redemption, since he's also an ordained Episcopal minister. Plus he might remember something about going "far overboard," since he was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' chief defender in the Senate back when ... oh, never mind.