[Hoot Gibson]

The debates and the campaign descended into mud slinging when Rubio went on his little tirade. Now he's up at CPAC slamming Trump and charging that he cannot expect to insult his way into the White House. Rubio, now remember he is 5-8", is the guy who literally started the Johnson measuring. And yet Trump is the guy who gets called out for vulgarity. The entire resurgence of the Rubio campaign has in fact been built entirely on name calling, but while he's getting a total pass for it, Trump is being mercilessly harangued for his rebuttals.

Now I'll grant you that Trump has thin skin, and frankly in my mind, Rubio would not be all that hard to handle for a guy who wasn't. But that is an example of the double standard being applied here. The sins of some are glossed over, while the sins of the other are magnified and built upon.

Part of the problem is nobody's fault, with 17 candidates at the start, this primary has been a free-for-all at best. I'm just not going to argue with you about FOX News, your analysis is exactly correct for the time up to and until his and Megyn Kelly's spat. After that we saw about a month's worth of détente between Trump and FOX. Since then, FOX has disparaged him on every show I've seen except for Lou Dobbs, Hannity, and Stewart Varney. The hosts by in large, do not challenge the points of the naysayers, who are by virtue of their obvious bias, invited on air and paid to give Trump their best shot. I mean, how does one insult someone into oblivion without having to suffer the stigma attached for having done so? Easy, pay somebody else to do it.

The establishment and the media have gone about things all wrong. They can't monkey with the political process and expect to get by with it. Especially this time, when millions of new or the otherwise recently resuscitated, have become so actively engaged in that process. If Cruz can fight his way upstream to gain the nomination apart from the stink of manipulation that would be fine. But the way they're doing things, the people are going to feel disenfranchised and in my book, rightly so.

They've trotted out just about anybody with any sort of name or celebrity who could be cajoled or bought, to bash Trump. And it is more than obvious to everybody who is paying attention, millions in this case. What's hilarious to me is they voted for Obama twice for promising to do, what they claim to be worried that Trump might do. And Mister Romney? His rep has been reduced to that of a wad of chewing gum on the bottom of Reince Priebus' tennis shoe.

I've sort of felt a momentum shift with regard to an inevitable Trump nomination. We'll just need to see about that. I would like to respond to the deal about Trump hiring Polish workers to build Trump Tower. We basically in this country have two options when it comes to a building project, hire a contractor who employs union workers or one who uses nonunion.

The general contractor therefore must comply with specifications that the architect has demanded and worry that his price will be competitive. All of the subcontractors who have submitted their price for the architectural subgroups, like metal studs, suspended ceilings and sheetrock for example, in turn use either union or nonunion workmen. Hint, we have 12 million undocumented immigrants who are looking for work. The client, in this case Mr Trump, does not get the luxury of demanding union workmen and the lowest price. Usually one gets one or the other, that's just the way construction goes. So, when Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio gets up and say that Trump hired these Polish guys to build Trump Tower, it is a classic example of misrepresentation.

Recently I spoke with some workmen at a football stadium construction project. Guess where they were from? Czechoslovakia. Going by that then, the school system who owned the stadium was guilty of hiring Czechs and more specifically, I suppose would be whoever the Superintendent of Schools was at the time. I know better however. The contractor hired the workers because construction costs were the overriding factor.

My understanding is that Trump's company was fined and paid the $1 million fine. Trump has made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign. I don't see how pointing out that he is the only candidate fined for using illegal immigrants is misrepresenting anything. Do you think Trump was unaware that illegal immigrants were working on his projects?

Cruz has made and kept his campaign promises. He has promised to build a wall with Mexico (and suggested the wall in 2011) and pledged that there will not be amnesty for illegals on his watch. Trump's position has drifted and will continue to drift if he is the nominee in an effort to attract Democrat support.

Did you see the story about Trump cheating during some debates, including the last one, by consulting with his campaign managers during the commercial breaks? I am not surprised that Fox News, the host of the last debate, did not report the incident. I have almost stopped watching Fox because of the number of their on air personalities campaigning for Trump instead of doing their jobs. Yet, Trump complains about Fox's coverage.

I did not think that it was Romney's place to hold a press conference to attack Trump. Those are the kind of attacks that he should have made against Obama.

However, I agree with Romney's assessment that Trump is a fraud. I am convinced that his insult routine is a ploy to minimize the time for his opponents to expose his ignorance of real issues. I do not expect to ever see Trump debate another Republican one-on-one. He just does not have the knowledge to engage in an honest debate of issues.

The number of conservatives who say that they will never vote for Trump is large and it is growing. Neither Trump nor Hillary are presidential and I will not be responsible for actively contributing to the accelerating decline of this country.