RUSH: This is the National Journal: “‘Energized Santorum Unloads on Romney’s ‘Gotcha Politics’ — No more Mr. Nice Guy for Rick Santorum. The newly-energized presidential candidate on Thursday launched a full-throated attack on front-runner Mitt Romney, saying the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign ‘has been about serially tearing down opponents without offering any kind of vision for what he wants to do for this country. ‘This is the gotcha politics of Mitt Romney,’ Santorum said … ‘He’s not interested in talking about the issues,’ Santorum said of Romney. ‘He’s interested in trying to pander and make political sauce when there’s real substantive issues about how we’re gonna try to change this government. And he’s on the wrong side of it.'”

It’s interesting. You know, Romney and his super PAC, whoever the non-Romney is that emerges, that super PAC gets in gear. They tear down Newt, they tear down Herman Cain, they tear down Perry — and turn their sights all of a sudden on “Mr. Nice Guy,” Santorum. You know, Santorum was a nobody up until past month or so and just really this week and so they weren’t running any attack ads. As far as anybody knew, Santorum was a nice guy. Maybe needs to smile a little bit more but nice guy. Then one day everybody wakes up and Santorum wins three primaries, and the next thing we know he’s the biggest wandering shred of human being debris there ever was, from the Romney campaign. Isn’t it amazing how that happens? Santorum now is fighting back against this stuff. He’s not complaining about it.

He’s not running around saying, “This is not fair! This is not right! These are abject lies, everybody knows it.”

Santorum’s just saying, “Okay, you want to play this way? Let’s talk about you, Mitt.”

That’s what Santorum’s out there doing.