1. Rick Perry is repeating the following passage at his South Carolina stops today: "Rick Santorum is a good man, he is a good father, he’s a good Catholic. But he hasn’t always been a good conservative." By continually mentioning Santorum's Catholicism, Perry is hoping to remind bigoted South Carolina evangelicals that the man their leaders are standing behind is a got-damned Papist. And if there's one thing evangelicals hate more than Satan, it's Catholics. I'm wondering if there will be any dirty tricks that Perry has left unplayed by the end of this primary.

2. Oh, wait, here's one: Mitt Romney's people are barraging South Carolina Republicans with a phone message that includes a clip of Santorum's 2008 endorsement of Romney against the creeping RINOism of John McCain:

If you’re a conservative, there really is only one place to go right now. I would even argue farther than that. If you’re a Republican, if you’re a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now, and that’s Mitt Romney.

This phone ad, of course, is intended to confuse voters into thinking Santorum has backed out of the race and endorsed Romney. It's pretty standard, as far as dirty election tricks go, but it's a sign that the Romney people aren't taking anything for granted in South Carolina.