
Leaders of the Republican party entered prevent defense mode this week with former Senator Bob Dole warning of "cataclysmic" failure and "wholesale losses" if voters select Sen. Ted Cruz as the party's nominee, and the conservative National Review magazine calling Donald Trump "a menace" to Republican principles.
The attacks on Trump, the populist New York billionaire, and Cruz, the conservative stalwart from Texas, come as polls show the two men pulling ahead of the pack both nationally and in key early primary states, leaving conservative leaders to ponder: which man would do the party more harm?