THEN THEY CAME FOR THE PHONY CENTRISTS

I see via Memeorandum that the knives are out for Ron Paul -- he's getting deserved scrutiny for racist newsletters published in his name in the 1990s and he's essentially being called a traitor to the U.S. by Murdoch hatchetwoman Dorothy Rabinowitz in The Wall Street Journal.

As I said in my last post, this is the third guy the GOP Establishment's thumb-breakers have gone after since Labor Day on Mitt Romney's behalf, after Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. Which brings me to another headline I see at Memeorandum: "Huntsman Is the Best Choice for GOP," the title of an editorial in the Concord (N.H.) Monitor.

I've been extremely skeptical about Huntsman's chances in this race and my opinion hasn't changed, but, y'know, the guy could do all right in the Granite State. And if Romney still looks vulnerable by then, I'm really looking forward to the inevitable unleashing of the Republican goon squad on him.

I'm looking forward to it in part because I find Huntsman insufferably sanctimonious -- but mostly because centrist insider journalists and pundits are inclined to like Huntsman, and I wonder how they're going to react when someone they like is getting this treatment. Cain? Gingrich? Paul? The Beltway media doesn't really feel the need to offer any of them backup, regarding all of them as rather clownish -- but Huntsman embodies the insider journos' Third Way savior fantasies. Will a back-alley beatdown of upset them? Will they rally to his defense? Or will they just decide that the strong horse -- i.e., weak Mitt Romney backed by the GOP enforcers -- is how we'll get to right-centrist paradise?