Over the weekend, The New York Times had an entertaining read on Mitt Romney's style of campaigning. Included in the piece was this humorous aside about Romney's operations team:

Between stops in New Hampshire, this reporter found himself trailing the former governor’s S.U.V. on a back road, only to be led to the shoulder and instructed to "veer off" by a man wearing an earpiece who emerged from Mr. Romney’s car. "We ran your license plate," he told the reporter, and explained that no one was permitted to follow Mr. Romney’s vehicle.

Well, today, Romney's campaign is denying that happened. Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades said the campaign did not stop the Times reporter, Mark Leibovich, the AP reported.

"We will not comment on security procedures for the governor," Rhoades said. "We can confirm, though, that at no time was the reporter's license plate run through a check or was his vehicle pulled over."

Leibovich is reportedly sticking by his report. So what gives?

A couple of bloggers unfriendly to Romney have weighed in with their own takes.

Mitt Romney, who credits his early TV ads with moving his poll numbers, has just cut a new one. It's another riff on spending and taxes and features clips from a recent speech to the fiscal conservative group Club for Growth. See it below.

Jim, we hardly knew ye.

Rudy Giuliani, who may or may not make a major play for Iowa, is about to lose a valuable adviser in the state in Jim Nussle, a former US representative who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year. Nussle is set to return to Washington as President Bush's new director of the federal Office of Management and Budget. Nussle supported former Tennessee senator Bill Frist and jumped to Giuliani's campaign once Frist bowed out.

Giuliani's campaign released this statement today: "The president’s decision was the right one for our country and for taxpayers. Jim and I have long shared a commitment to fiscal discipline and I have every confidence he will continue to be an effective steward of taxpayers’ hard earned dollars in his new position. As our campaign continues to grow our team in Iowa, I am grateful to Jim for his early support and for his hard work in helping our team get started."

What is it about Iowa and buses? John McCain has fired up the Straight Talk Express again this year, Mitt Romney's son Josh has converted an RV into the traveling "Mitt Mobile," and now Kansas Senator Sam Brownback has launched his own bus tour across the state.

Brownback, who's hoping a strong showing in Iowa can keep him competitive in the GOP primary, has launched a 27-town, four-day bus tour this week that will bring him from his native Parker, Kan. to Ames, Iowa, the site of the fabled Republican straw poll this summer. The journey ends Thursday at Brownback headquarters in Ames.

"It was growing up in the Heartland that I learned the conservative values and principles that will guide me as president," Brownback said in a statement. "I am thrilled to meet with families, business owners, senior citizens and the hardworking people of the Hawkeye State."

For more on Brownback's Iowa efforts and his tour, go here.

By Scott Helman
Globe Staff

Senator John McCain of Arizona said today he is "guardedly optimistic" that the Senate's controversial immigration reform plan will pass Congress, but said he has been stunned by the personal attacks on him from conservatives angry about the bill.

"I'm still hopeful we can get it done," McCain said in a wide-ranging interview with reporters and editors at the The Boston Globe.

McCain, who acknowledges that his outspoken support for immigration reform is complicating his presidential campaign, relayed a story about attending a recent fund-raiser where protesters were standing outside holding signs that declared: "McCain -- traitor."

"I'm a pretty tough guy and I'm not asking for any sympathy," said McCain, a former Navy combat pilot who spent five years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down in Vietnam. But, he added, "You see something like that and you think, `Wow, what would make these women ... think I'm a traitor?"

He also said the ugly debate over immigration reflected the "deterioration of the political discourse in America today." "It disappoints me so much," he said, and repeated, "It disappoints me so much."

That's right, for a small contribution to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, you'll get the latest in Romney garb. Fifty bucks gets you your choice of a T-shirt, hat, or water bottle. "Today, you can become the first in your neighborhood to sport the new logo by getting the official Mitt Romney T-shirt, hat, and water bottle," Romney's son Craig wrote to supporters today.

The campaign is also asking supporters to shoot a picture of themselves (or their pets, natch) in the "Mitt Gear" and send the photos in for display on mittromney.com.