Well put. But you need to add that the GOP itself has often been complicit in these campaigns of destruction. When Palin and her family were being raked over by blown-up distractions and outlandish smears, the GOP establishment not only didn’t lift a finger, but joined right in.
I’ve always been vacilating back-and-forth in regards to the reasoning for this. On one hand, was it just sheer cowardice in the face of the massive liberal-media complex? Or, was it because they view such small-government outsider/reformers as an enemy that needs to be eradicated from the political field the same way their Dem bretheren do? Maybe, and most likely, a bit of both. Whichever the case, the GOP sure comes out looking horribly.
When it comes to Rubio, I’m inclined to expect a rallying to him by the GOP, not so much to combat the vile unfairness in this attempt to delegitimize him, but because Rubio himself is no danger to the establishment. Since his election, he continually distanced himself from the tea-party and cozied up to the McCain crowd, and now adding his amnesty views, Rubio himself is now part and parcel of the beltway power establishment.
That is actually my view of him as well.