“People understand this wasn’t really a gaffe,” says John Brabender, Rick Santorum’s chief strategist, referring to the now-infamous “Etch-A-Sketch” remark made by top Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom. “What this was was a peeling back of the onion where we saw the real Mitt Romney based on someone who’s very close to him in his own campaign.”

Unlike past Romney controversies in which Santorum sometimes declined to join in attacks on the frontrunner — the flap over Romney’s history at Bain Capital, for example — the Etch-A-Sketch affair has the full attention of Team Santorum.  “We’re not looking for someone who’s the Etch-A-Sketch candidate,” Santorum said Wednesday in Louisiana. “We’re looking for someone who writes what they believe in stone and stands true to what they say.”  In Arbutus, Maryland, when Romney spoke at an American Legion post Wednesday afternoon, Santorum spokeswoman Alice Stewart visited the parking lot, giving reporters a miniature Etch-A-Sketch.  Asked what other plans Santorum had to call attention to the matter, Stewart said, “Lots.”