He will do or say anything.

From Jonathan Martin at Politico.com:

Mitt Romney’s campaign is sending out automated phone calls to Florida Republicans attacking John McCain on taxes and Social Security, an aide to the former governor confirms.

A Florida Republican up in the Panhandle received a robo today suggesting he “take a hard look at John McCain’s record.”

“John McCain voted against the AARP-backed Medicare prescription drug program,” the call notes, in an obvious effort to give seniors pause about the senator.

Further, the call continues, McCain opposed repealing the capital gains tax, the death tax (again — think seniors) and twice voted against the Bush tax cuts.

From Philip Klein from AmSpec Blog:

This is an abomination for several reasons.

First, McCain should be praised by all conservatives for being one of the few Republican Senators to oppose the multi-trillion dollar boondoggle, which has become the poster child for the party’s betrayal of small government principles.

Second, in last Thursday’s debate, Romney correctly noted that, “the earmarks and the pork barrel spending and the bridge to nowhere, that’s an easy one to take a shot at. But the big one is entitlements and reining in entitlement costs. And that’s where the big dollars are.” Yet just days after Romney made that statement, we find out that his campaign is attacking McCain for opposing legislation that, by some estimates, added $16.2 trillion to our long-term entitlements deficit.

Third, one of the biggest obstacles to entitlement reform is the AARP, which uses scare tactics to convince senior citizens that Republicans want to throw elderly people out on the streets. Were it not for the fear-mongering of that organization, we may very well have had a chance to achieve true reform such as personal accounts for Social Security, or indexing benefits to inflation. We’ve heard a lot of talk in the past week about how McCain allies himself with liberals and is disloyal to his own party, but now Romney is the one favorably citing the AARP and using that group’s style of smear tactics against a fellow Republican who took a stand for fiscal conservatism.

Romney does not deserve to win. If McCain wins after Romney outspent him 9-1 in the State, Romney is toast. He’s nowhere in New York and California, and he could pick up two or three Super Tuesday States. That’s it.

It looks as if Ronald Reagan’s memory will be preserved in the party for a while longer.