Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. This sound aphorism may have a less pithy political corollary: Never attribute to strategy what can be explained by emotion. Only this truth can help us understand why Republican officials have started saying they prefer Donald Trump to Sen. Ted Cruz as their presidential nominee. Congressional Republicans would supposedly come out ahead with Trump because he would be a stronger nominee and a more cooperative president.
These arguments are so weak that they can be understood only as rationalizations for a hatred of Cruz felt by Republicans whom he has challenged. I'm a friend of Cruz, but you need not be one to see that anger is leading the officials to make a mistake — or, rather, three of them.
First, these Republicans are wrong to be sure that either Trump or Cruz will be the nominee. The conventional wisdom about the Republican primaries has repeatedly changed. Originally Jeb Bush was said to be the favorite; then Marco Rubio; then we heard that "it's going to be a Cruz-Rubio race"; then a Cruz-Trump one. The currently rising theory is that Trump will prevail.