"The Creationists/ID-iots are an embarrassment - and a clear, present danger - to the Conservative Cause."
Did you give it any thought if your "clear and present danger" people just up and left the conservative cause?
..Because, ultimately, they really aren't conservatives at all? Sounds like blackmail.
I'm not entirely conversant with the situation in the USA. In the UK, although we have been under the bloody socialists since 1997, I am very optimistic about the next general election. Rational conservatism ultimately, I believe, captures the centre as well as the political right; Blair's trick was to wrap himself in Tory clothes and capture the centre (but he's losing it now); here, at least, it is the mass at the centre of the bell curve that swings elections, not the fringes.