The presidential candidate and general nutcase was booed last night for saying that his vote for George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” act was “against the principles I believe in.”

Noting that he was trying to support the president, Santorum explained, “Sometimes you have to take one for the team.”

The bloodthirsty GOP crowd—these people are scary—rained disapproval upon him, and Mitt Romney and Ron Paul had their oratorical way with Santorum.

But guess what? Santorum’s right: There are times in politics when, as a member of Congress, you should vote for things that you don’t believe in to support your president. It may because the issue is not that important to you, or because the intensity of your belief is not very high, or just because your party’s (not to mention country’s) leader really needs you. Maybe it’s even a recognition that you’re not always right—a sign of humility.

One of the problems with the GOP—and a big reason why it’s tearing itself apart like Japanese fighting fish—is this insistence that one must never compromise, the elevation of dogma to the position of highest principle. The arrogance of these people! They are so sure that they are always right, and exactly right, that they find any compromise (even when it’s to support a Republican president!) a sacrilege.

Generally, I’m of the mind that Rick Santorum is a pretty awful person with political beliefs that are way out of the mainstream. (Exactly the kind of person who should compromise.) I would empathize with him in this situation, but the GOP electorate is a monster that he and his candidate colleagues have helped to create. They feed the beast red meat, and then are surprised when it turns on them.