Damnedest if they do damnedest if they don't.

Chris Cillizza wrote

Republican politicians are doing the damndest to distance themselves from Limbaugh. House Speaker John Boehner called Limbaugh’s comments “inappropriate” . Carly Fiorina, a 2010 candidate for Senate in California and now the vice chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, described Limbaugh’s remark as “insulting”. Of Limbaugh, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum said: “He’s being absurd, but that’s you know, an entertainer can be absurd. He’s in a very different business than I am.”

Boy if that's their damnedest, I like Democrats' chances. "inappropriate" ouch -- that's got to leave a mark.

But my point, if there is one, is that the three are presented as typical when they aren't. For example, it appears that at press time, Mitt Romney was still doing his damnedest to dodge the question. Since then he has done his darnedest (well maybe just his drattest) to distance himself going so far as to say that those are not the words he would have used.

Also (see post below) Cillizza changes policy on anonymous quotes in the middle of his article writing both " said one senior party strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly out of wariness of crossing Limbaugh publicly" and "the amount of discussion on birth control had many senior GOP strategists nervously wringing their hands and wishing privately that the presidential candidates would get back to talking about the economy." Cillizza neither named those senior GOP strategists nor explained why he granted them anonymity.