You are saying that sticking to conservative principles and those espousing conservative principles is the same thing as a circular firing squad.
That’s what nauseates me.
That’s not what I’m saying. And hopefully, most conservatives can figure out how to stick to their conservative principles without having to trash every candidate except the one they have decided to support.
I think that when the time comes, you will probably be able to do this, so I’m not sure why you find it so offensive now. My guess is that whatever candidate you currently support, if it turns out the leader in the polls next fall is Jim Demint, or Mike Pence, or some other suitably conservative candidate, you won’t decide to tear them down in the hopes your candidate will be left standing.
Or maybe you will. That is why we ended up with McCain last time, because not only were conservatives attacking each other’s chosen candidates (there were some pretty nasty attacks here on Duncan Hunter for example, one of which was resurrected in a recent Palin thread), but some were actively supporting McCain for some early primaries under the assumption that once they stopped Romney, McCain would be easy to get rid of.
I am encouraged that the darling of the 100%ers, Sarah Palin, herself has no qualms about supporting the “sufficiently conservative” candidate if necessary to try to win an election. It’s one of the things I like about her.