How about this one, and it might explain the circular firing squad...

Ronald Reagan. If he were alive, young enough and eligible.

He ran up the deficit and he appointed a Justice, O'Connor, who voted for Roe V Wade. There is a chance the Tea Party couldn't forgive the first sin. The "Christian" wing of the party couldn't forgive the second.

Yet, today, both factions praise him as a great "conservative." That must be because he is dead, and otherwise not eligible to run.