There's a gag line that pops up in movies now and then (see clip from "Airplane" below) that goes, "Don't panic. Don't panic. Okay, panic!"

That describes the current state of the establishment Republicans.

After South Carolina, they were betting that the pull-toy of the big donors, Marco Rubio, would rise to the occasion in Nevada.

Nope. Nevada turned out even worse than South Carolina for the Beltway crowd. (Note the hint of panic in this National Review piece hyping Rubio.)

It wasn't merely that Trump scored 45 percent of the vote, up from a prior 33.

The most telling result was that Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz once again clumped around the 22-point mark, splitting the opposition vote almost evenly.

If this keeps up, then Trump is the nominee. Once we get past March 15 and into the winner-take-all states, the Donald would just keep piling up the delegates.

But the really crucial event on March 15 is the Florida primary. If Rubio loses his home state to Trump, then he's got nowhere to go.

Conversely, if Cruz were to lose Texas to Trump, he'd be in rough shape as well.

This Boston Globe piece nicely describes the hopes the Beltway boys have that Cruz will lose Texas Tuesday and have to yield to Rubio.

One problem: Cruz has a comfortable lead in the polls. He's up 37-28 in the latest one.

If the Ted wins his home state next week and picks up a decent number of delegates in the others, then he has lots of encouragement for staying in the race.

But now let us look at how the Marco is doing in his home state. Yikes!

Rubio is in the teens in the two latest Florida polls listed on the RealClearPolitics site.

The Donald more than doubles that, hitting the 40s in both.

As I've noted, I find myself more aligned with the views of Cruz than the other two, though I am not unfavorably disposed to the Donald.

I could live with either as the nominee.

But the Beltway crowd can't. The GOP establishment does not like Cruz in the least.

He's not totally in tune with the nutty "neo" conservative philosophy calling for endless regime change in the Mideast - also Hillary Clinton's view, by the way.

But the establishment may have no other choice after Florida. If Rubio loses and they don't begin a "dump-Marco" movement, then they are guaranteeing Trump the divided opposition he needs to win the nomination.

Here's an evil conspiracy theory I just dreamed up.

Let's imagine Rubio loses big to Trump in Florida after Cruz has won Texas.

At that point there is one way, and one way only, for the party leaders to stop Trump in the winner-take-all races.

That would be for the bosses to get rid of Rubio and back Cruz, knowing full well he can't win the nomination but could stop Trump from getting to the 50 percent delegate level.

Then once the convention begins and there's no winner on the first ballot, they could push a compromise candidate.

Are you ready for Mitt Romney?

Seriously, they are. His name is being bruited about as a last-minute choice.

No wonder these guys are getting creamed by the Donald at the polls.

But once they stop panicking, they'd better sit down and take a realistic look at dumping Rubio.

That may be their only chance to stop the Donald.

And that chance is fading by the day.

UPDATE -IS THE DONALD READING MY MIND? No sooner did I post this than Trump came out with an attack on Romney for telling Trump about his tax returns.

Here's his Tweet:

"Mitt Romney,who totally blew an election that should have been won and whose tax returns made him look like a fool, is now playing tough guy."

And then there's this neocon who would vote for Hillary over Trump - all the while pretending to be a conservative in classic neocon fashion:

"If forced into a choice between Clinton and Trump, I will prefer Hillary Clinton. The future of the entire conservative movement is at stake, and a Clinton victory over Trump might be the only hope of saving it."

The rats are deserting the sinking ship, but at least it's sinking inside I-495.