That is happening now, again. Respectable conservatives have exactly the same contempt for the Constitution that liberals do. Americans were dying by the thousands in Vietnam, but that didn't mean the country was committed to anything. It is also his idea of constitutional government. This is the key to the whole mentality of respectable conservatism.
Respectable conservatives have one, and only one, real concern in life.
That is their respectability. You can kill Americans, you can bus children, you can do anything you want to do to anybody, if only you will not give respectable conservatives labels that will make them unrespectable. They don't mind men dying. They don't mind children being bused. The troops are just hostages.