Great Fools with Dizzying Intellects

There's a classic scene in the Princess Bride wherein a character talks through the problem of deducing which cup his rival has poisoned and wishes him to drink from.

In 2004, The Guardian invited its British readers to send mail encouraging a vote for Kerry to undeclared voters in Clark County. The plan may very well have influenced the vote. Against Kerry, and in favor of Bush.

So what to do with the recent developments? A Yahoo search for the phrase 'Tiberi latest Republican to break step with Bush' gives almost 1000 hits. Tiberi is becoming the international symbol for Republicans cutting and running from the administration. The first hit that comes up, is from FreeRepublic (aka Freeperville), the bastion of right-wing base interaction. They're saying things like :

I hope the chickenshiite loses the election. Only one thing worse than a traitorous democrat, its a cowardly republican.
--
Devil take all such “loyalists.”
--
U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi = COWARD
--
...

So, only a great fool would praise his opponent for criticizing the war, and I am not a great fool. But, Tiberi knows that Democrats will criticize him for stepping away from the President, which will only reinforce the distance narrative in the minds of busy headline-reading voters. So he expects Democrats to let this late insincere display of independence go unchallenged. So we must hammer home the message of insincere flip-flopping. Except that echoing the FreeRepublic talking points will cause the base to circle the wagons...

Is it better to go after Tiberi because he lamely supported more than 90% of Bush's destructive incompetency, or because of his cowardly disavowal of that support? Decisions, decisions, decisions.