Romney is sending surrogates to attack Newt.  One of them, John Sununu, has his nose out of joint ever since then Minority Whip Newt hung up on him when Chief of Staff Sununu called to inform him that President George H. W. Bush had surrendered on his Read my Lips promise not to raise taxes.  It was the refusal to fall in line on that issue that placed Newt on my radar screen as a different kind of Republican.  He seemed to relish being at the center of a perfect storm of contempt from the media, the Democrats and a significant number of inside the beltway Republicans.

Two words are all that Newt should need to turn any attack from John Sununu into a positive: the name of that most peculiar of Justices,  David Souter.    Blame for the worst Republican Supreme Court appointment since Earl Warren rests at John Sununu's feet.  And unlike then California Governor Warren, whose support Eisenhower needed to get win 1952 presidential nomination, there was no compelling political quid pro quo behind Souter's nomination.   When it came to assessing Souter's intellect, character and political inclinations, Sununu's error was entirely unforced.    

ht  William A. Jacobson