“It’s gone way too long and gotten way, way too personal.”

— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on Meet the Press, describing the Republican presidential primary as “the nastiest I’ve ever seen.”

Patch: “Two men who kissed one another were kicked out of presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s rally Friday evening… Santorum was 15 minutes into his speech when the two men shouted and got the attention of the crowd. They exchanged a kiss, prompting guards to eject them and the crowd to chant ‘U-S-A’ while they were leaving the gym.”

‘I apologize to all of us, because I’m sure it’s not a pretty sight.”

— Rick Santorum, quoted by the AP, apologizing to anyone who has seen the recent snapshot of him sunbathing poolside at a resort in Puerto Rico.

Rick Santorum “is now claiming the race for the GOP nomination is closer than you might think,” Fox News reports.

Said Santorum: “We’ve got some new delegate math that we’re going to be putting out that shows this race is a lot different than what the consensus is. We’re looking at the rules, we’re looking at how things are stacking up, and we’re in much better shape in these caucuses and some of these apportioned states or winner take all states which in fact are not winner take all states.”

He then inexplicably claimed he’s won every Midwestern state, even though he lost both Ohio and Michigan.

Wall Street Journal: “Mitt Romney’s long-gone dog’s last ride has dominated headlines this month. From the New Yorker cover depicting Rick Santorum riding on Mr. Romney’s car roof in a doghouse to Washington Post columnist Chris Cilizza’s stab at dog-crate deconstruction, Seamus the Irish Setter’s ride on the Romney’s station wagon roof is the story that wouldn’t die, even though the dog itself did decades ago.”

Boston Globe: “Political crusaders have long sought to lift up the downtrodden, comfort the afflicted, and empower the defenseless. Scott Crider, the founder of Dogs Against Romney, says he fits squarely into this grand tradition. His mission: Make sure every American voter knows that once, 29 years ago, Mitt Romney drove for 12 hours to Canada with the family’s Irish setter, Seamus, in a crate on the roof.”

“If we’re able to come out of Illinois with a huge or surprise win, I
guarantee you, I guarantee you that we will win this nomination.”

— Rick Santorum, quoted by NBC News, on next week’s Illinois primary.

“Missouri Republicans jammed caucus sites across the state on Saturday morning, with at least one site in St. Charles County shut down, injecting some uncertainty into the process,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“A caucus in the gymnasium at Francis Howell North High School in St. Peters was shut down after about a half hour of boisterous disputes, some of it over a caucus rule barring videotaping and other recording. Supporters of presidential candidate Ron Paul repeatedly yelled objections to decisions made by caucus organizers.”

New York Times: “Turnout was low when Rick Santorum took this county (and the state) in a traditional primary election on Feb. 7. It was one of three states he won that day, giving his campaign a significant lift. But because of the unusual party and state circumstances, the vote awarded no delegates, many of whom would be chosen at caucuses on Saturday.”

“You know a presidential primary has turned into a scramble for every last delegate when the candidates start showing up in Puerto Rico,” the Miami Herald reports.

“Politics is a boisterous pastime on this island territory, where campaigns feature festive parades and caravans of cars blaring music. Few places in the world have higher voter turnout.”

“So you can imagine the excitement over Sunday’s Republican primary in Puerto Rico, which in most presidential campaigns earns at best a token visit from a candidate’s spouse or kid, but last week had both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum hitting the streets of San Juan.”

The FEC released a report saying John Edwards’ defunct presidential campaign must repay the U.S. Treasury $2.1 million within 30 days.

The AP notes that “even though the campaign ended more than four years ago, it has kept spending money, reporting $836,712 in 2011 expenses that went to airfare, hotel rooms, and other bills.”

Robert Shrum: “Republican voters are now the political equivalent of Mitt Romney’s famously abused dog Seamus. Mitt has put voters on the roof of his car, and he’s driving for the nomination whether they like it or not. More accurately, he’s sputtering toward the nomination as the roof-bound electorate periodically poops on his parade.”

Though he holds a double-digit lead, Rick Santorum’s disorganization may cost him a chance at delegates in his home state.

The Daily: “The problem for Santorum springs from the fact that potential delegates in Pennsylvania run on a primary ballot uncommitted to any presidential candidate — meaning voters won’t know who they’ll support at the convention this summer… Romney, Ron Paul and even Newt Gingrich got some of their supporters on the ballot as delegate candidates. But Santorum’s campaign officials, who have struggled with ballot organization issues across the country, privately concede that they just didn’t have the time, nor resources, to organize their own supporters to run as delegates when the paperwork was due earlier this year.”

John Avlon: “A cleansing bout of craziness in 2012 could be just what the GOP needs. I’m talking about a nominee so far to the right that conservative populists get their fondest wish — and the Republican Party is forced to learn from the result. Namely, that there is such a thing as too extreme.”

“Giving conservative activists everything they want in a presidential nominee would ultimately be clarifying for the Republican Party… There’s nothing like losing 40 states to refocus the mind.”

The Wall Street Journal has interesting detail on Mitt Romney’s application to double the size of his beach house in La Jolla, CA: It will have an additional 3,600 square feet “of finished underground space, according to public records.”

“Tony Crisafi, one of the project’s architects, declined to comment on Mr. Romney’s motivations but says that these days, most of his clients want to be discreet about the scale of their home, and one way to do that is ‘by pushing things underground.'”