Romney: 'Get rid of these super PACs'

Quite a moment from Mitt Romney on "Morning Joe" today: The former Massachusetts governor, who has spoken at super PAC fundraisers and is benefiting from a wave of negative Restore Our Future ads directed at Newt Gingrich, called the very existence of super PACs a campaign finance "disaster" that should be eliminated.

Asked by the hosts if he would comply with Newt Gingrich's demand and call on ROF to stop running attack ads against Gingrich, Romney dodged: “I’m not allowed to communicate with the super PAC in any way, shape or form.”

Then, he went further and condemned the creation of super PACs in general.

"They set up these new entities, which I think is a disaster, by the way. Campaign finance law has made a mockery of our political campaign season," Romney said. "We really ought to let campaigns raise the morney they need and just get rid of these super PACs."

In fairness to Romney, it's not necessarily hypocritical to take advantage of super PAC-friendly rules this cycle, while saying that the rules should be changed as a matter of principle and reverted to something more like a pre-McCain-Feingold finance system. But it's not exactly a brave stance, either and Romney's using some strong language for a candidate whose Iowa campaign has probably been saved by a super PAC.

What's more, Romney's claim that he could land in the "big house" if he said he disapproved of the ROF ads is pretty questionable. As Stephen Colbert has noted repeatedly, there are about a million ways for super PACs and campaigns to communicate with each other in public, and it's hard to imagine Romney getting in any legal trouble for saying -- in response to a question -- that he disapproves of the ROF campaign.