Will Mitt Romney's 'Illegal' Gaffe Come Back to Haunt GOP in 2012?

Republicans lining up for Mitt Romney should have been chilled by one line he uttered at the CNN Debate Tuesday night.

Badgered into admitting that undocumented workers performed yard service at his home, Romney acknowledged, "Yes I had illegals working on my property from a lawn service."

Then, in a most revealing statement, he added:

"I went to the lawn service and said, for Pete's sake I can't have illegals, I'm running for office!'"

The obvious takeaway is that Romney's political aspirations -- not any guiding conscience or principles -- drove his decision to fix the situation and cut those workers loose.

Call it pragmatism or, as Rick Perry did, pure hypocrisy. Either way, Romney's words reinforce the longstanding suspicion that he's just another political hack, or worse.

His rationalizing on Tuesday night should give pause to Florida power-brokers who are jumping aboard the Romney bandwagon. Then again, his latest supporters, such as state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, haven't exactly been in the vanguard of curbing illegal immigration here.