As reported today by Red County contributing author "Tomahawk," Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney today launched a vicious attack against fellow Republican John McCain in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Romney, a wealthy buisnessperson who served only one term as chief executive of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, launched his broadside against John McCain as public polling is showing the four-term US Senator from Arizona rapidly gaining on the one-term-and-done ex-governor in critical early-voting states, such as New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

Proving Mitt Romney to be the Republican candidate most activlely engaged in negative campaigining, earlier this month, Romney launched political attacks against former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee on televison in Iowa. Public polling is demonstrating Romney is losing the Hawkeye State as well.

Ironically, as "Tomahawk" reports, Mitt Romney is hitting John McCain on the issue of taxes. A curious line of attack for one-termer Mitt Romney, as a 2003 survey of states by the National Conference Of State Legislatures found Massachusetts under Mitt Romney's "leadership to have imposed at least $501.5 million in fee hikes, far more than any other state in the nation that year. Furthermore, Romney directed a massive increase in taxes for residents of the Bay State.

In his desperate effort to touch as many wedge issues as possible in one thirty-second ad, Mitt Romney also questions John McCain's comittment to fighting illegal immigration. Another odd line of attack for Romney, as the Chicago Tribune newspaper reported that Romney "himself once supported McCain's legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. And he has endured embarrassing news stories this year about the landscaping company that takes care of his lawn used illegal immigrants to do the work."

Before he officially became a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney also made numerous statements in support of President George W. Bush's immigration reform proposal that conservative critics lambasted as "amnesty for illegals."

As the calendar clicks off the days closer to early-voting conests, it is becoming clearer and clearer that Mitt Romney's desperation level is rising to a boiling point as his support level crumbles. Unable to point to any meaningful accomplishment of his own in his brief one term as governor of Massachusetts, Romney (and his army of well-paid consultants) is resorting to attacking his Republican brothers in the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.

Unlike Mike Huckabee, whose campagn seems impotent in staving off the well-heeled Romney Campaign's political attacks, John McCain is a proven American hero and fighter who withstood five-and-a-half years of Communist Viet Cong imprisonment and torture during the Vietnam War. Given the fortitude and strength of a true American legend like John McCain, taking ridiculous political "attacks" from a vain venture capitalist and corporate raider like Massachusetts' Mitt Romney must seem like a walk in the park.

No wonder nationally-renowned political commentator Robert Novak is stating John McCain is "today is viewed by canny Republican professionals as the best bet to win the party's presidential nomination. What's more, they consider him their most realistic prospect to buck the overall Democratic tide and win the general election."

Good thing Mitt Romney's army of highly-paid political advisors - they know who they are - took his paychecks while they could, as Romney is on the verge of learning the lesson that Ross Perot, Morry Talor and Steve Forbes learned in presidential campaigns past: Money can buy you plenty, but it is no substitute for real-world experience. And attacking your obviously more qualified opponents does not a president make.