What this tendency to eat our own can do to a man with decades of well-earned credentials and a reputation for integrity

Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator does a little research and finds out that Elliott Abrams said things in yesterday's NRO piece excoriating Newt Gingrich's behavior during the Reagan era that just aren't so.

I've met Elliott Abrams a couple of times - actually, it was during the Reagan era - and I've followed his work over the years. He's been associated with several prestigious think tanks. He's married to Midge Decter's daughter.

The NRO piece is unlike him (and unlike NRO, for that matter) and lots of people are scrambling for an explanation. It seems he's gotten caught up in the fever afflicting a wide swath of the Republican party that absolutely can't live with the thought of a Newt Gingrich nomination. I'm not without big-time reservations, which I've expressed here. I'd be much more pleased with a surge for Santorum, or, say, Bachmann or Perry at this point, but that's not where we are. Barring another bounce for Santorum, the alternative to Newt is Mr. "He's-not-a-bad-guy-he's-just-in-over-his-head" / "Nothing-to-get-angry-about" Reasonable Gentleman. And I can say unequivocally that that scares me a hell of a lot more.