Mourdock leads way as the only way

ARE YOU READY for it,  America?  The Indiana voters, formerly known as Republicans, have pushed the Party of Lincoln over the cliff.  They replaced Richard Lugar, a grey eminence of the old GOP, with a truculent Tea Partier, state Treasurer  Richard Mourdock.  Who?  Never mind. The name could be generic fringe, for all that matters. In the teabaggers ascendancy to power, they have now become the other half of the two-party system with the old GOP gasping in extremis.

That's not as crazy as it sounds.  The remnants of Republican moderates have left the stage and those who haven't  don't dare question anything about the intruders, unless it's by gaslight. Mourdock has already forewarned conscientious objectors on either side of the aisle that the Tea Party mentality is in supreme command with no margin for compromise even, I suppose, on dunking one or two lumps of sugar in the morning coffee. Aglow in his landslide victory, Mourdock was on Fox News charting the Draconian course that he believes lies ahead to Congress. If his ilk prevails,  Congress, which should represent the needs of  America, will be paralyzed by deadlock for years to come.  There will be, in Mourdock's words, no compromise.  None.  A graphic clue:  he opposed the bailout of the auto industry without which an enormous number of Hoosiers would have lost their jobs.

In his concession speech, Lugar  captured the essence of a Mourdock mindset:

"In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party.  His answer to the inevitable roadblocks  he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook.   He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican Party of those who stray from orthodoxy  as they see it.  This is not conducive to problem solving and governance."