Our buddy Patrick Hynes weighed in today against Jim Antle and his piece on Mitt Romney by casting doubt on Romney's conservative bona fides -- just the sort of thing one might expect from someone now working for John McCain and evidently worried that Romney is outflanking McCain on the right.
To answer a few of Patrick's specific complaints: I would bet McCain is effectively more pro-choice than Romney these days, and that McCain's suppression of the First Amendment via McCain-Feingold incumbent protection dwarfs any of the coerciveness in Romney's health-care reform. As for who Romney is surrounding himself with -- the puny-minded article Patrick links to tells us nothing on that score -- I think a bigger worry should be McCain, whose current brain trust includes such conservative stalwarts as Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Gerry Parsky.
But you know Patrick's really ready to throw mud for his man when he for all intents blames Romney for the recent Big Dig tragedy. I was wondering who'd be the first to take that route.
(For a much more thoughtful and informed response to Patrick Hynes, see Jim Antle's post here.)