An official endorsement Saturday night from last year’s Tea Party standout, Herman Cain; an all-but-official backing from longtime Tea Party darling Sarah Palin; and the support of the Tea Party Express have not lifted Gingrich back over Mitt Romney in the Florida polls. That weakened clout has been accompanied by the Republican establishment’s full-throttle charge at Gingrich’s past — to great effect with the primary here just one day away…

Romney has unleashed every surrogate he’s got to clamp down on Gingrich. McCain, when asked Friday by RealClearPolitics if Romney risked a backlash by employing this strategy, answered, “I think that’s always a risk, but once the Tea Partiers examine his fiscal record, then it’s very hard to get enthusiastic about a guy that supported a bill that had $14 billion in earmarks.”

That’s the difference: The establishment harangued O’Donnell, Paul and Herman Cain for being unqualified, even eccentric. But with Gingrich, “Washington insiders” are reminding everyone that he’s one of them.