The Brownback/Romney dustups

Sen. Brownback has recently upped the attacks on Mitt Romney and his pro life credentials, and there's a reason for that.

The Romney strategy was always to be to the right of Giuliani on abortion (not too hard,) but he was waiting, somewhat vaguely suspending his abortion stance, to see if any candidates came in to the right of him. With the McCain campaign left for dead, the Thompson campaign quickly fizzling, and no Newt likely on the horizon, suddenly Romney has an opportunity for all of those currently uncertain pro-life voters to the right of Giuliani. (ie. most of the Republican party.)

So, over the last month, Romney has become much more vocally pro-life, and that's why Brownback is going after him. Brownback saw that as his voter pool which has led to the current flareup between the two.

(That's also why Giuliani is suddenly pushing his 8th "commitment" regarding abortion and adoption, and why Huckabee is now positioning himself as the pro-life counterbalance VP choice. The pro-life voters are the ones up for grabs right now.)