Get Off the Sidelines in Arizona

If you had to come up with a description for the response of institutional Republicans to Donald Drumpf, it would be this: Too late.

At every turn, Republicans have been late to challenge Trumpism. Back in August, as Drumpf was just taking over the race, Right to Rise’s Mike Murphy famously explained, "If other campaigns wish that we're going to uncork money on Donald Drumpf, they'll be disappointed. Drumpf is, frankly, other people's problem." Right to Rise did a fine job of holding down Marco Rubio's numbers by spending$35 million in ads against him. Because negative ads work. By the time they got around to spending $25,000 against Drumpf—not a typo—it was too late.

Jeb Bush could have hurried along the consolidation of votes against Drumpf by bowing out of the race after clocking in at 2.8 percent in Iowa and 11 percent in New Hampshire. Instead, he hung around to suck up 8 percent of the vote in South Carolina, denying Cruz and Rubio a shot at beating Drumpf. Too late.

The Republican donors who pumped Right to Rise full of money could have bankrolled a serious anti-Drumpf Death Star PAC in January and could have then used the money to bury Drumpf after Iowa, when he was vulnerable and Republicans were (foolishly) telling themselves that the nightmare was over. Instead, the Republican money didn't start to hammer Drumpf until after Super Tuesday on March 1. Too late.

After the bottom dropped out of Marco Rubio's campaign on March 5, Rubio could have gotten out of the race and cleared the way for Cruz. Instead, he stayed in and cost Cruz North Carolina and Missouri. Too late.