Litmus tests and circular firing squads

What does the modern Republican Party do when it stumbles upon a candidate who might actually be a plausible favorite to beat Obama? Why, they decide he is insufficiently conservative and tear him to pieces.

Fresh off his twin heresies of shelving a Wisconsin-style "right to work" bill and continuing his policy of making abortion a non-issue in his platform, Daniels has continued to dig his own grave by endorsing 30-year veteran Senator Dick Lugar, one of the last Republicans in the upper chamber with half a brain in his skull.

I wouldn't vote for Daniels, but when he was my Governor for six years he struck me as a sincere non-ideologue with what I believe are some very bad ideas about the role of government in the economy. He isn't a complete idiot. He has the ability to explain even his half-baked ideas to the public without making everyone think he is insane.

And for all of these reasons and more he is totally unacceptable to the modern GOP.