Guiliani says he's never seen a guy change his mind on so many things. Brit Hume thinks Romney has exhausted his quota for flip-flops. Santorum believes he has no core. Gingrich thinks Romney's a liar, while Huckabee says he just makes things up.
That was then. Today, of course, all of these men are singing Romney's praises. There's apparently no such thing as a thorny past when it comes to the alternate universe of Republicans, where Bush has ceased to exist, there's no such thing as congressional obstructionism, the deficit is all Obama's doing and -- Halliburton who? Weapons of mass what?
I once knew a woman who kept a pet skunk. She had an affinity for skunks, she said, simply because no one else liked them. She felt they were misunderstood. In political circles, Romney seems to have turned into that skunk. Sure, he's rich, willing to be molded by the party, and has the ability to dodge the truth and warp the facts as well as any Fox news anchor, but he has no real friends, only those who support him as a matter of right-wing unity. To de-scent Romney is a task that, as his wife would say, is hard. So very, very hard. When Romney goes off script, he tends to leave a trail of lingering, cringe-worthy comments that -- depending on which side is talking -- either show his true character, or just need a little spin-translation to be understood.
After Romney's debate performance, Santorum enthusiastically tweeted, "Romney rocked it!" Santorum, like Gingrich, Guiliani, and Hume took to the airwaves in support. The once-soulless, gamey, lying flip-flopper was morphed, if only by party loyalty, into a man of peerless integrity. With this group of peers though, I don't think that's exactly a compliment.