Twenty-five Senate Republicans -- a majority of the GOP Senate caucus -- voted this afternoon to invoke cloture on a budget resolution to keep the government funded, and by doing so cast a vote in favor of ObamaCare.

At least, that's how Ted Cruz and his supporters see it. Within minutes of the vote, FreedomWorks sent out a fundraising appeal, telling their email list:

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"Obama’s Republican allies in the Senate betrayed you. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul did everything they could to Defund ObamaCare. But, Establishment Republicans stabbed them in the back. They gave Obama an easy out. They helped fund ObamaCare."

This isn’t the first time the Establishment betrayed you. That’s why you and I must replace the Obama-Republicans with real conservatives. People like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul. Conservatives who will do what it takes to stand up to Obama and stop his “radical transformation” of America. We can’t have Republicans whipping votes for Obama."

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Those 25 "Obama Republicans" include Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. Chambliss is retiring, but Isakson is going to have some explaining to do to the folks back home. In fact, if you want to know why we're in this mess and unlikely to get out unscathed, a newly released national poll of GOP primary voters explains it pretty well.

Here are the results, as reported by Public Policy Polling:

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Who do you trust more: Ted Cruz or Mitch McConnell?

Ted Cruz    49%

Mitch McConnell 13%

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Who do you trust more: Ted Cruz or John Boehner?

Ted Cruz   51%

John Boehner 20%

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Would you support or oppose shutting down the government unless Obamacare is defunded?

Support 64%

Oppose 20%

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By margins of two or three to one, Ted Cruz has more credibility with the GOP base than either of the party's nominal leaders in Congress. And by a margin of more than 3 to 1, GOP voters would rather shut down the government than see ObamaCare funded. What more do you need to know?

Oh, and then there's this: Cruz is now the party's most popular potential presidential candidate. I'm not sure that means a whole lot, given that Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have held that same title, if briefly. But tellingly, every Republican senator with any pretensions about running for president in 2016 voted alongside Cruz today. Wherever he goes, they intend to be right there with him.

It's the damnedest thing I ever saw.