Is there something in the Iowa water that causes them to lose all memory or reason when it comes to politics? Or is it straight-up brainwashing?

Check out these poll numbers from Iowa, and the stunner that the vast majority of Iowa Republicans think Ted Cruz will work effectively with Congress to enact a conservative agenda. That's the very same Ted Cruz who led the government shutdown in 2013 and has been instrumental in jamming up Congress since.

While commentators fixated on Trump tend to focus on national polls, they’re essentially meaningless right now and will shift once Iowans caucus. As I pointed out before, Cruz is not only leading in Iowa, but he’s primed to steal Trump’s supporters, who could become disillusioned if Trump stumbles or suffers a humiliating defeat. As the crosstabs of our poll revealed, an overwhelming number of Trump supporters like Cruz: 73 percent of those who pick Trump as their first choice rate the Texas senator favorably.

Cruz is also far and away their preferred alternative to Trump, with 49 percent identifying him as their second choice. That's far ahead than the next candidate on Trump supporters' list: Rubio, with 16 percent.

Perhaps the poll’s most stunning finding — and if you’re a Republican congressional staffer, I’d urge you to sit down or put on a helmet so you don’t fall over and get hurt — is that the amiable Cruz who Republicans have encountered on the campaign trail and the debate stage has persuaded them that he is temperamentally better suited than three of his other rivals to work effectively with Congress and enact a conservative agenda. Cruz's 31 percent rating on this category is higher than that of his fellow freshman senator, Marco Rubio (29 percent), or the mild-mannered Ben Carson (18 percent), or Trump (12 percent).

That's right, he ranks higher than Trump, Rubio or Carson. Let that sink in for a minute.

Sweet Jesus, is there an antidote for this kind of insanity?