Declaring their support for anyone not named Clinton, the three members of Alaska's congressional delegation gave backhanded endorsements to Donald Trump.
Borrowing an idea from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want," the Alaska politicians will march to the presidential election with the candidate they have.
But Alaskans deserve more than this uncharacteristically timid response from Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young about the likely GOP leader.
Sen. Ted Cruz said that Trump is a "pathological liar" who can't tell the difference between truth and lies, while Murkowski said Trump has made "numerous inappropriate statements" that she finds troubling.
Sen. Marco Rubio said Trump is a con man, while Sullivan said he can't support "some of the rhetoric" Trump has used in his campaign.
The Alaska delegation members haven't identified what statements by Trump they consider inappropriate, forcing Alaskans to guess.
Are they bothered by Trump's pledge to change the name of Denali back to McKinley because President Obama insulted the people of Ohio with the Denali decision last year? Or are there more serious differences?
On his website, Trump lists seven "positions" to make America great again, starting with forcing Mexico to pay for a wall. There is no position about oil and gas, land use, the environment and other issues because the Trump campaign has had little to do with serious policy questions.
Maybe the Trump habit of constantly contradicting himself or making false claims strikes our delegation as a tad inappropriate? Or the overall bizarre behavior pattern that prompted Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to withhold an endorsement?
"Parsing Trump sentences is a challenge," conservative columnist George Will writes, "but is rewarding because it frequently reveals that he actually has said nothing at all. When silence descends, there lingers in the air only gauzy innuendo."
"His metabolic urge to be scabrous guarantees that Republican candidates everywhere will be badgered by questions about what they think about what he says. What they say will determine how many of them lose with him, and how many deserve to," said Will.
I don't know that Republicans in Alaska will lose elections based on what they say about Trump, but I suspect there is a fear of denouncing his incendiary comments, as that would anger some potential voters. On the other hand, Alaskans in Congress ought to make it clear where they stand.
They find themselves in an uncomfortable position and this makes talking about how much they dislike Clinton a convenient escape valve.
By default, their tepid support for Trump becomes tepid opposition to his extreme statements about everything from from Mexicans to Muslims and the fantasy about Cruz's father and the killing of John F. Kennedy.
The latest of Trump's reckless statements came Thursday when he said that not paying 100 cents on the dollar would be a way to cut the national debt.
"Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent," The New York Times said.
He also said the United States is the "highest-taxed nation in the world" and that middle-class residents are paying more than 20 years ago.
"In fact, the U.S. is one of the lowest-taxed industrialized countries, and middle-class households pay significantly lower tax rates than they did in 1996," The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Alaska politicians may think they have practical reasons to edge away from the GOP candidate who is poised to become the party standard bearer.
When Mitt Romney ran for president, there was no similar effort to back off. Murkowski, who endorsed Romney in 2008 and 2012, said four years ago the former Massachusetts governor had the "leadership we need in the White House." That's not the same as stressing in 2016 that she is anti-Clinton.
For his part, Romney doesn't think Trump has what the nation needs.
"Here's what I know," Romney said in March. "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as the degree from Trump University."
Murkowski and Young, both running for re-election, will keep saying from now until November that their main thoughts about the presidential election are that they want to keep Clinton out of the Oval Office at all costs.
It doesn't take a degree from Trump University to make that prediction. But it is unacceptable for the Alaska congressional delegation to stay silent about the university's namesake.
Dermot Cole is a Fairbanks-based columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News. The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com.