Is Mitt Romney a classless shit-bird or a stone cold Machiavellian strategist? That's the question being pondered by the Republican pundit class following Romney's flagrant violation of campaign protocol last night in the wake of his Michigan primary triumph. Romney ditched traditional campaign etiquette and started his victory speech just as second place finisher John McCain had started his own, knowing full well that the networks would immediately pull away from McCain's speech to cover the night's victor.

Team McCain was predictably pissed (you can watch the TV time theft as it occurs here), especially since McCain's campaign manager had allegedly called Romney's campaign to let them know when McCain would be speaking. According to one campaign blogger, "The words 'no dignity, no class, and no couth' are reverberating around the McCain camp tonight."

The sentiment was shared by other righty bloggers who thought McCain deserved a little better. Still, some credited Romney for playing "the brass knuckles game." "Why let him [McCain] look gracious in defeat when you can preempt a free media opportunity for your opponent," wrote David "Glengarry" Freddoso of the National Review. "Yeah, maybe it looks mean, but this is what you do if you want to win. Politics isn't about making friends."

Another pundit thought the ploy might even shore up a glaring Romney vulnerability in the weeks ahead: "Mitt's greatest weakness is that to the casual observer he comes over as the plastic Ken doll who gets kicked around by GI Joe. So booting GI Joe off the air may work for him." Well, at least until the war-scarred GI Joe reminds casual observers that while he was being brutally tortured for his country, the Ken doll was politely protesting hippies at Stanford and bicycling around France with a draft deferment.