ABCNews’ Rick Klein and Jake Tapper are taking cues from the McCain camp.  Less than a day after McCains weak broadside at Mitt on the abortion issue, Klein and Tapper splash an article entitled “Romney’s Pro-Life Conversion: Myth or Reality”.  While the very headline implies Mitt to be a liar, the factual support for that argument is fundamentally weak.  Yes, Mitt appointed democrats as judges during his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts.  Newsflash – Massachusetts has a lot of democrats.  Some of them are bound to become judges.  Turns out that Mitt appointed a [gasp] pro-choice judge to a District Court slot.  District Court judges spend most, if not all of their time doing actual trial work rather than deciding constitutional issues.  This is mentioned only as a sidenote in the lengthy article.
 
Klein and Tapper also attempt to split hairs about Mitt’s position on stem-cell research and human cloning.  They spend an entire section on this issue – something which medical science has written many volumes.  While they do quote from Mitt’s campaign that Mitt does support “federal funding for alternative methods to obtain pluripotent stem cells, like direct programming and altered nuclear transfer.”  The authors make no attempt to define any of those terms.
 
My guess is the MSM has a cache of similar hit pieces just waiting for an opportune moment.  The only problem with this strategy is that there is very little substance for them to use, and Mitt is better at refuting it than they are at slinging mud.
 
I’m throwing a yellow flag at the Brownback campaign for piling on McCain’s Cheap Shot Express.  Bad form, Sam.  This is not a one-issue campaign.
 
If you want to know what Mitt thinks about stem cells, may I suggest you get it from the man himself.  Ditto for his thoughts on the abortion issue.
 
PoliticalDerby editor Jason Wright summarizes McCain’s heat week against Mitt.  I can’t resist quoting this paragraph:

 
McCain isn’t in as much trouble as his opponents would have us believe. But clearly Romney’s operation has surprised them and it shows. Remember, this nomination was to be handed to him in the same way it was gifted to Bob Dole in 1996 like a shiny gold watch after 30 years of service. But if McCain still wants to win this nomination, he’s going to have to chew it off someone’s wrist and go running from the RNC convention hall with the bloody stub.
Jason, are you trying to infer that McCain has become the Monty Python’s Black Knight of the 2008 Campaign?
 
By the way, McCain’s camp has registered an anti-Mitt domain to which I will not link.  Memo to McCain:  You don’t want to start focusing on facts, John.  Facts are very stubborn things.
 
Michael Gaynor, writing in the Post Chronicle, says Mitt understands the need to fight “radical secularism”.
 
Liberty Papers’ Doug Mataconis declares Mitt to be a “foe” to “individual liberty” because he didn’t sign the American Freedom Agenda’s pledge.  Memo to Doug:  If the only notable signatory to said petition is Ron Paul, I’d say Mitt’s pretty safe where he’s at.
 
Charlotte Conservative’s Michael Kraft crunches some numbers and says a valid argument can be made to say that Mitt is now the front runner.   By the way, Mike, I love the Lindsay Graham countdown clock.
 
The Chicago Daily Herald’s Eric Krol has Mitt’s reaction to the unfortunate result out of the Massachusetts legislature denying the people of the Commonwealth the right to vote on the issue of gay marriage.
 
HuffPo’s Matt Ortega wonders why Ann Coulter has jumped ship from Mitt to Duncan Hunter.  Two questions:  Has she actually jumped, and does it really matter?
 
The Christian Science Monitor’s Linda Feldmann takes a look at bellwether state polls and sees a Mitt surge.
 
The AP reports that Hillary and Mitt have the most cash of the current presidential field.  For the record, Mitt has about five times as much loot as Hillary ever will.  Add to that the fact that Mitt made his money the old fashioned way – he actually earned it.
 
The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports on Mitt’s fundraiser to be held at Fenway.  The Article VI Boys think there may be a religious experience to be had there, at least by Dean Barnett.