It's the faith-based question that almost everyone is asking right now about the madness in the culturally conservative wing of the Republican Party.

What are lots of those evangelical voters in Iowa (and elsewhere) thinking when it comes to hugging billionaire, New Yorker, gambling czar and world-famous (onetime, maybe) playboy Donald Trump?

The other day, I argued -- in this podcast -- that the key word is anger, linked with disappointment. Is that anger at President Barack Obama? Not really. They never expected anything from Obama other than what they've been getting. My headline on the post that went with that podcast: "Big question: Falwell Jr. is so mad at (fill in the blanks) that he's ready to hug Donald Trump?"

So who or what goes in that (fill in the blanks) space?

You can call them the "country club" Republicans. You can call them the "establishment." You can call them all kinds of things, but the key is that it is that upper-crust GOP brain- and money-trust crowd that drives around in Washington, D.C., in limos listening to National Public Radio. The folks running the show are not the angry and often ignored folks whose brand of conservatism is a mix of conservative culture and economic populism.

This leads me to that Tucker "Daily Caller" Carlson think piece that ran the other day in The Politico, of all places.