Carrying pictures of Chairman Mao

A Daily Kos diary tips us off to the continued bizarre behavior of Republicans in my home state of Kansas. It seems they are forming a Loyalty Committee to punish Republicans who don't toe the line. From WIBW in Topeka:

The Kansas GOP Loyalty Committee, ready to start next January, will discipline Republican officers who publicly support -- or give money -- to Democratic candidates.

If an officer is found to have violated this new plan, they can be stripped of their office.

Democrats say you won't see them instituting such a policy -- they say staying away from what they call.. "political non-sense" is bringing more people to their party.

Republicans say they expect loyalty to stay in- house -- especially for 2008.

Republicans who are sanctioned by the Loyalty Committee can appeal the decision to the state committee.

If there's a poster child at the state level for GOP extremism, it's the Kansas Republican Party. Can you imagine belonging to such a party? This move seems certain to drive even more Kansans to the Democrats, pretty much ending the long legacy of "Lincoln Republicans" who traced their political lineage to the Civil War era.

I know it sounds odd, but there were actually progressive Kansas Republicans once upon a time. Now the GOP there is pretty much the same as everywhere else: dominated by creationists, anti-abortion nuts and inveterate racists. Lincoln would be appalled, frankly.

I'm glad we fled the place early in life, as soon as we had the financial means to do so. The lunacy that has engulfed our entire country for the last eight years was known as "high school" where I grew up.