At 70, columnist and Cubs’ fan George Will might be forgiven some mellowing. That will clearly not be necessary after reading yesterday’s broadside at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The column leaked early to Politico’s Mike Allen and quickly ricocheted around the web as anti-Romneyites of left and right used the words of the most credentialed Beltway conservative to lash Romney.
The Obamians inside and out of government feel that Romney is not only the likeliest of GOP nominees, but also the most formidable of the field arrayed against the failed president.
They will be using any criticism of Romney from any source to try and start the hoped-for bleeding off of Tea Party support for the nominee.
But some sources are better than others, and five-star conservative commentators are best of all.
Conservative enthusiasts of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, businessman Herman Cain or former Speaker Newt Gingrich are also looking for any cudgel with which to beat back Romney’s huge lead in New Hampshire, and Will’s acid pen is at least as painful as the Blood Quill wielded by Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter epic.
“I must not tell lies” Harry was obliged to write out by this particularly vengeful professor, and the words appeared as though cut by a scalpel on the back of his hand.
“Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis,” Will concluded about Romney, and that will leave a mark.
Contemporaneous with the Will salvo, Team Romney released the endorsements of two former attorneys general — William Barr and Michael Mukasey — and other former senior Department of Justice officials, an important show of strength in an election cycle that will inevitably be focusing on the Obama-Holder combination of chaos and ideology-drive “justice” at DOJ.
It was another conventional move in a likely GOP nominee’s conventional attempt to take the center away from the Democrats so that 270 electoral votes are in the red column by the close of election 2012.
Conventional tactics aren’t winning hearts and minds among many big stars in the conservative pantheon.
Commentators other than Will among the most influential voices on the right — Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to name two who matter, a lot — had already thrown some heavy policy critiques at Romney when the Washington Post columnist first trotted out the Dukakis slam a week ago on ABC and then doubled down in his column.
Knocking Romney for Massachusetts’ mandate has become as popular as blasting Perry for his debate performances or hammering Cain for campaign inexperience and gaffes.
All of the attacks on all of the candidates take a toll. But some attacks productively push a candidate on policy. Attacks on character, as opposed to positions or ineptitude are a different category of poison-tipped arrow.
“Obama’s second inaugural” is not a speech most conservatives ever want to read or hear, but the imperfections of the GOP field are so, well, tempting.
Punditry-induced crackups by candidates are rare but not impossible. Romney’s dad George suffered one in his campaign for the presidency 44 years ago.
On Aug. 31, 1967 a local television host asked the first Gov. Romney about his trip to Vietnam. “When I came back from Vietnam,” Romney responded, “I’d just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get.” The campaign was effectively over.
Don’t remember the name of the television journalist? Few people do. But Lou Gordon was Richard Nixon’s greatest asset.
The most memorable commentary of this primary season will not blow away and vanish with the winter. It will be back in the spring, summer and fall, recycled by Team Obama and relayed by the Obama-dependent in the mainstream media.
Conservative opinion-meisters are best advised to target the policies, and leave the personal attacks to the Chicago gang who, after all, are the real pros in that field.
Examiner Columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.
