When your only tool. . .

. . .is a hammerlock, don't be surprised when somebody goes MMA on you. And it looks like that's what Gov. Crist and Sen. Martinez did after having been strong-armed by the Romney camp to the point where they just couldn't take it anymore.

Skimming a bit down the page to the entry entitled "Romney Checks McCain" will make it pretty plain what happened. I don't know which adviser said this, but I hope the Romney campaign is keeping him out in the lounge with Ron Kaufman during their high-level strategy meetings.

"If those guys want a political future in this state, they will sit on the sidelines," says one Romney adviser. "We have some of the biggest Florida fundraisers with us right now, and if Mel or Charlie went with McCain, we'd make them both pay when it came time for them to get donor dollars for another race."

It's not a good idea for a candidate to alienate important people in Florida before they've got the nomination secured. Do you suppose they were planning on skipping the state altogether in some kind of anti-Rudy strategy for the general election? Does Florida now mean nothing once the nomination is secured?