[There was a video here]

Looks like Rick Perry is on Mitt Romney's list! (Right after the guy from LMFAO.) Last night, of course, Perry got Romney to show his "horror movie stepfather" side by doggedly interrupting the GOP frontrunner. Tonight, the Romney campaign put a "brutal" attack ad on YouTube—and then mysteriously pulled it. Drama!

You can see most of the ad above (via Think Progress). The original was taken down from YouTube a few hours after it was posted, and Romney's campaign hasn't commented. Essentially, (and correctly), it calls Perry a huge doofus moron who can barely construct a coherent sentence, and who is embarrassing even to Fox News. (We should note that it appears to use several widely-circulated screencaps curated by Gawker's own Matt Cherette, so, in some sense, Gawker made an ad for Mitt Romney.)

The ad's not really that "brutal," as these things go, but it's pretty personal and direct, and it didn't get a glowing reception among right-wing blogs—which is one possible reason it got yanked. But on the other hand (and, warning: it's a terrible idea to spend any more than 15 seconds of your time thinking about this), it's also fair to assume that this is one of those we pulled this ad out of the decency of our hearts, so please, stop replaying it constantly, on all the news shows, no, really, please, also, is there a briar patch around here kind of things.

Which is weird on its own merits, because Perry's campaign is in bad shape right now and there's no reason for Romney to give him a boost by singling him out for ridicule—especially in an ad that's likely to garner some sympathy for Perry. (Republicans love candidates whom other people call stupid!) But, wow, we have already spent [checks watch] nearly two minutes thinking about Mitt Romney's campaign, so we have to go stab ourselves to death. Bye!