Mike Enzi is a great example of why Republicans of the establishment ilk are too stupid to govern, and in this instance, it has less to do with his conservatism than his political sense.
Does he not at least have "people" who plan and strategize? Wouldn't the logical thing have been for those people to say, "Hey Mike, you KNOW Cheney is going to come out and stand with Cruz, so we need to figure out where you're coming down on this. You need to get the jump on it, or you're going to look reactionary and opportunistic and weak and unprincipled and beta."
Further, he at least should have seen which way the wind was blowing long before now. He knows Cheney is coming from his Right. He knows she is of basically the same constitutional conservative mindset as Ted Cruz. Thus, the politically astute thing for him - really, his only political choice - should have been to stand with Cruz all along.
If you're going to end up supporting the principled position for purely political reasons, why not do it from the get-go, so that you at least have a chance at fooling people into believing you are principled?
I'm not suggesting that politicians SHOULD be unprincipled, only that in general, they ARE... Given that sad fact, Enzi has shown that he can't even be unprincipled effectively.
What a wuss.