Hawaii holds its GOP caucus today, and Idaho, Michigan, and Mississippi have their GOP primaries. These contests will be an interesting test of whether Cruz is cannibalizing Rubio’s support, and whether Trump continues to fade. Meanwhile, we have this report from CNN: Some Rubio advisers say get out before Florida:

A battle is being waged within Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign about whether he should even remain in the Republican presidential race ahead of his home state primary on March 15, sources say. Rubio himself is “bullish” on his odds of winning the critical primary, despite some advisers who are less hopeful and believe a loss there would damage him politically in both the short- and long-term. Publicly, the campaign is maintaining they are still a contender in this race, touting a Sunday win in Puerto Rico’s primary that delivered Rubio 23 delegates. But privately, the campaign is having a debate about whether he should remain in the mix — even for his home state of Florida’s primary. “He doesn’t want to get killed in his home state,” one source familiar with the discussions said, noting “a poor showing would be a risk and hurt his political future.”

Rubio partisans on Twitter were pushing back against this story — and working very hard to spread a story that Ted Cruz was putting out false robocalls claiming Rubio was out.

Does this sound familiar? CNN puts out a story suggesting a candidate might be getting out at a time that is critical for Ted Cruz. Campaigns run around accusing Cruz of dirty play for spreading the story. You can see the Rubio folks licking their chops at the prospect of repeating the story that hurt Cruz after Iowa:

If anyone manages to get a recording of any of these calls, please let me know. Sarah Rumpf at gmail https://t.co/bxZSZVl0Gf — Sarah Rumpf (@rumpfshaker) March 8, 2016

Here is the baseless accusation she is retweeting:

Hearing from people Back home that Cruz robocalls saying Rubio is dropping are real, someone got one. I trust them, take it w/grain of salt. — Kyle Foley (@KFoleyFL) March 8, 2016

And here she is retweeting another such accusation bearing a #TedCruzLies hashtag:

The problem is, there is zero basis for the rumor that Cruz is behind any such calls, if they happened. His spokespeople say he’s not. And, if anything, it seems plausible that Trump partisans could be executing a false flag operation.

When a Cruz rapid response guy chided this partisan “journalist” for repeating rumors falsely accusing Cruz of this, she batted her eyes innocently and said she was just gathering information — even as she exulted in the attention she was receiving from the Cruz guy:

PS every time you try and troll me, you give me more attention. #PleaseDontThrowMeInTheBriarPatch https://t.co/EDPD7AhSYW — Sarah Rumpf (@rumpfshaker) March 8, 2016

This is just one more reason Rubio needs to lose.

I am on record saying that Marco Rubio needs to be curb-stomped in this race. The faster the better. I searched YouTube for the clip from Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” where Cary Grant is hanging onto a cliff at Mount Rushmore by his fingertips, and Martin Landau comes up and steps on the fingers. This is what Cruz needs to do to Rubio.

But if I found the clip, Rubio fans would all say: “BUT CARY GRANT LIVED AND HE GOT THE GIRL TOO!!!1! So it’s probably best I can’t find it.

Cruz can beat Trump head to head. But first, Rubio needs to be out. He won’t leave voluntarily. He won’t make a deal.

Rubio needs to be humiliated. Rubio needs to be ground into dust. The sooner he is gone, the sooner we can consolidate sensible people around Ted Cruz.

Let’s start today.