As the last men standing in the GOP nominating race took to the debate floor for what might be the last time the last time, it was an emotional evening all round. …

Five Ways Rick Santorum Blew It in Arizona

If we’ve learned one thing through this turbulent Republican primary, it’s that the debates really matter. Newt Gingrich rose and fell on his debate performances, Rick Perry knocked himself out entirely on the debate stage and Mitt Romney crawled back into frontrunner status in part by hiring a new debate coach and stepping up his game.

On Wednesday in Arizona, Rick Santorum needed to bring his A game to the debate to keep his momentum into the big Feb. 28 primaries in that state and Michigan. He didn’t do it. Instead, he left a trail of moments that will likely haunt him in the press, in his rivals’ speeches and in attack ads.

Santorum And Romney Spar Over Earmarks

In the CNN debate Wednesday Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney mixed it up over earmarks, with Santorum accusing Romney of hypocrisy for attacking his own budget items while requesting the same federal dollars himself.

Santorum defended earmark spending in general, saying he was proud to support projects that Congress deemed were important when the White House disagreed. But he said Romney had no grounds to attack him at all given that the Olympics requested and received federal dollars through the same process while Romney was running the 2002 games.

Hold On To Your Aspirin: Foster Friess Eyes Major Spending On Senate Races

Foster Friess has made a name for himself as the major financial benefactor for the pro-Rick Santorum Super-PAC, and a vocal champion of good old-fashion ideas about family values (and pharmaceutical methods). But he might just be getting started.

In a profile in The New Republic, Friess reveals that in addition to his support for Santorum, he also plans to spend big on this year’s Senate races.

Tonight’s High-Stakes GOP Debate Could Also Be The Last

Wednesday night, the four remaining GOP presidential candidates gather in Mesa, Arizona for the 20th and what is possibly the last GOP debate.

It wasn’t meant to be this way. Originally, CNN had another debate scheduled for early March before Super Tuesday. But Mitt Romney backed out, quickly followed by Ron Paul, resulting in the debate’s cancellation. It’s completely unclear just how many contenders will be left after Super Tuesday, and whether Mitt Romney will have any incentive to continue to show up at debates.

Day In 100 Seconds: Satanic Verses

With Rick Santorum as the frontrunner, attention has been dragged from his radical current policies, to his consistently immoderate views from years ago.

A focus on Satan and the likelihood that Satan has his sights set on America, unleashed the ire of Romney surrogate Chris Christie, who was more than happy to make sure Santorum didn’t back away, but stand by all he says.

Mitt Romney, meanwhile, is still on the trail, loving all things. And of course President Obama’s out there too, using his dulcet singing voice to make the election into something that more closely resembles American Idol.

Detroit News Is Not Happy With Romney’s Decision To Edit Its Endorsement

Mitt Romney’s campaign is trying to mitigate the damage done when it sent out a Detroit News endorsement and edited it to remove a paragraph critical of Romney’s stance on the auto bailout by claiming that copyright law prevented them from sending out the full version to reporters.

The paper’s not happy with the move, and famous First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams isn’t buying the excuse. He told me Wednesday evening that the News could actually sue Romney if it wanted (though he noted the paper would be “ill-advised” to bring it).

“This is a situation where if anything the Detroit paper has a claim if it wanted to assert it against Romney for printing what it said in a distorted way,” he said. “For the Romney people to print so much of it and leave out only the bad parts is by it’s nature a distortion.”

Russ Feingold, New Obama Camp Co-Chair, Continues To Harshly Criticize Obama Over Super PACs

Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) is still one of President Obama’s biggest critics when it comes to his decision to accept super PAC money. Only now he’s criticizing the president from his perch as a national co-chair of the Obama campaign.

Feingold was one of around 35 national co-chairs announced by Obama 2012 Wednesday morning. This came just days after he warned that Obama was “dancing with the devil” thanks to his decision to allow administration officials to help raise money for a super PAC supporting Obama’s reelection effort.

In an interview with TPM Wednesday afternoon, Feingold reiterated the warning — but said that his twin roles of helping the Obama campaign while criticizing some of its tactics were not inconsistent at all.

Romney’s Tax Plan Still A Boon To Rich, Despite 1% Talk

Mitt Romney took a surprisingly populist tack when he announced the topline details of his new tax plan. But the framework his advisers presented to the press on Wednesday is still short on details, and on the surface it appears to benefit wealthy Americans disproportionately, just as his original plan did.

Romney is advertising the plan as neutral — or maybe even progressive — since it would cut tax rates by exactly 20% for every income bracket. In addition, Romney said earlier today that the rate cuts would be offset in part by eliminating tax deductions that mostly benefit the wealthy, adopting the language of Occupy Wall Street protestors along the way to make his point.

Romney Campaign Scrubs Criticism From Editorial Before Sending It Out

There are a lot of kind words for Mitt Romney on the Detroit News editorial page Wednesday. But by trying to hide the few words that weren’t very nice, the Romney campaign could lose the narrative — and the goodwill of the paper.

The News endorsed Romney with less than a week to go in the Michigan primary race. It’s a must-win state for Romney and polls show he needs all the help he can get when it comes to convincing Republican Michiganders to get on board. All in all it was a nice editorial for the campaign (subhead: “State native offers the best resume, temperament and electability of the remaining Republican field”). But there was one graph where the paper took strong issue with Romney over the issue of the auto bailout, which has dogged him since the Michigan race began in earnest.