Romney the Type of Man Who Can't Leave the Last Nickel on the Table?

Professor William Jacobson is rising to the top of conservative commentators with cause. He is among the handful of conservatives effectively speaking out against the Romney campaign's scorched earth policy of destroying other Republicans.

"As reported by Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed (h/t HotAir):

“'It not about winning here anymore,' one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. 'It’s about destroying Gingrich — and it’s working.'

"Humiliation, not mere electoral defeat, appears to be the goal. Much as among warring communities in the Middle East and the Balkans, Romney supporters even have sought to deprive Newt of his own history.
. . .
"I’ve been struggling to come up with a good analogy. Perhaps this works. I’ve dealt with many businessmen who just can’t leave the last nickel on the table; they not only have to get a favorable deal, they have to get a deal which humiliates those on the other side of the transaction.

"I don’t know if Mitt Romney was the type of businessman who could not leave the last nickel on the table. But that is the way he is running his campaign.

"And we will all pay the price for it."

Jacobson also quotes Mark Levin, another conservative commentator who has risen to the top because of his courage and ability to tell the truth when other conservatives are flustered are going along to get along. Here's what Levin has to say:

"Romney is not a conservative in the traditional sense, and he has a record of big-government Republicanism. Even many years after the success of the Reagan administration, he sought to distance himself from Reagan and the GOP, self-identifying as a progressive and independent. Thus, he resorts to spending multi-millions of dollars trashing his opponents, rather than providing thoughtful arguments on conservatism and constitutionalism. Lest we forget, it was Gingrich who was trying to run a positive campaign and who offered to debate Romney one-on-one, asking Romney to stop with the millions in unanswered ads attacking him. Romney declined. I have no doubt that Romney would do the same thing to Santorum if Santorum was rising in the polls, albeit on different issues."

Of course, Governor Sarah Palin was the first major Republican politician to speak out against the character assassination carried out by the Republican establishment (and conservative media).

"But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans 'bitterly clinging' to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the 'wisdom' of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 who didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all."

Unfortunately, it seems to be true. The Romney campaign has become the face of the Republican party's version of an evil empire--"sad" and "bizarre" in the words of Ronald Reagan.
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Post edited to reflect the larger meaning of "evil empire".