Politicians being politicians, the only non-politician in the Republican Presidential Primary, who happens to be surging right now, was the focus of an attack by the professional politicians last night, in a debate held at Dartmouth College:

Fox News tells the story:

Businessman Herman Cain, rising fast in the polls, absorbed several blows from his fellow Republican presidential contenders on Tuesday, as they went on the attack over his 9-9-9 plan, which has sucked up much of the conversation about ways to restore the economy.

Most aggressive in their criticisms of the plan for a 9 percent sales tax, 9 percent income tax and 9 percent corporate tax were Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who said it will never come to pass.

When you turn 999 over, “the devil is in the details,” quipped Bachmann, who said the proposal is a tax plan, not a jobs plan, and dangerous because it gives Congress a “pipeline to a new revenue stream.”

Raising his arm and directing his question toward the audience, Santorum asked how many believed Congress would keep the income tax at 9 percent or who wants to pay a 9 percent sales tax.

The Bloomberg-Washington Post presidential debate at Dartmouth University in Hanover, N.H., was focused solely on economics. The eight candidates appearing in the roundtable forum also slammed President Obama’s health care law, with Santorum again offering an aggressive approach for preventing it from being enforceable law.

Separately, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney defended the 2008 bailout of Wall Street banks, saying it was essential to preserving the nation’s currency and financial system from collapse.

Romney said the U.S. could have had a “complete meltdown of our entire financial system.” He said “action had to be taken. Was it perfect? No.”

Asked if he would support another bailout, Romney said that if he thought the entire financial system would collapse, “you take action to keep that from happening.”

I wonder why the other candidates did not attack the Former Massachusetts Governor about his favorite invention, Romneycare?  Especially, since Fox News revealed this little tidbit of information, just hours before the debate:

Three of Mitt Romney’s advisers went to the White House at least a dozen times in 2009 to consult on the former Massachusetts governor’s health care plan that President Obama used as a model for his initiative — now a federal law that all the Republican presidential candidates want to repeal.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday he was “not in a position to comment on specific meetings.” But in a remark that won’t help Romney in his pursuit for the 2012 Republican nomination, Earnest repeated that Obama took cues from the Massachusetts legislation.

“You’ve certainly heard the president himself say that there were a number of very good ideas included in the health care plan that then-Gov. Romney put in place in Massachusetts that were incorporated into the Affordable Care Act and so it’s clear that these are some ideas that we were interested in incorporating and we did incorporate.

“But in terms of individual meetings and who participated and what the goal of them was, I don’t have that information,” he said.

NBC News first reported that Romney health care advisers and experts Jon Kingsdale, Jon Gruber and John McDonough all met with Obama officials in 2009, including one meeting with President Obama on July 20.

I’m shocked, I tell you.  Shocked!

But hey, no worries.  A buddy of Mittens came to his defense over Roneycare yesterday and threw his weight behind his campaign as well.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed frontrunner Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, sending yet another signal that the former Massachusetts governor is solidifying his support across the GOP establishment.

With characteristic frankness, Christie stood alongside Romney in a hotel conference room here and said the governor is not only the most qualified Republican in the race but also the one best positioned to defeat President Obama next year.

“People run for president of the United States and say, ‘I think I can win, I hope I am ready – which is what the president did four years ago,’” Christie said. “Mitt Romney said, ‘I hope I can win, I know I am ready.’”

…Christie’s insistence that Romney was the most qualified Republican running for president was a tacit dig at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom Christie was alluding to when he described the decision of other candidates to enter the race whether they’re ready to be president or not.

In addition, both Christie and Romney took direct shots at Perry when they criticized his choice of Pastor Robert Jeffress at the Values Voter conference in Washington a few days ago, when Jeffress criticized Mormonism, Romney’s religion, as a “cult.”

“Any campaign that associates itself with that type of conduct is beneath the office of the present of the United States,” Christie said.

Added Romney: “Gov Perry selected an individual to introduce him … and Perry then said that introduction just hit it out of the park,” Romney said. “I just don’t believe that kind of divisiveness has a place in this country.”

…In recent days, many additional Republican donors who had been encouraging Christie to run, announced that they were supporting Romney, creating a bridge between the two governors.

“The fact that they came together was serendipity,” a Romney adviser said.

In addition to his penchant for feisty language, Christie will bring to the campaign a willingness to defend Romney in his areas of greatest weakness with the GOP conservative base.

On Tuesday, Christie did just that, offering an unqualified defense of Romney’s advocacy while Massachusetts governor for health-reform legislation that became a model for President Obama’s plan.

“Any attempt to try to compare what happened in Massachusetts and what the president has done with his plan is completely, intellectually dishonest,” Christie said.

How cute.  I knew that they herded together in the wild, but to watch RINOs herding together domestically is truly special, isn’t it?

It’s Dole/McCain Deja Vu…all over again.